whipple family history
presented Sun., Aug. 7, 2022
in the Knox Town Hall
Whipple Family Members: William (Bill) Rice (son of Henrietta Whipple), Henry Whipple,
David Whipple, Deborah (Whipple) Degan, Brian Whipple, Melissa (Whipple) Forgette,
Suzanne Rice (daughter of Henrietta Whipple)
David Whipple, Deborah (Whipple) Degan, Brian Whipple, Melissa (Whipple) Forgette,
Suzanne Rice (daughter of Henrietta Whipple)
The Whipple family and Life in Knox in 1822
By Deborah Whipple Degan
I was asked to talk a bit about my family’s experience of farm life in the Helderbergs in the 19th century. You might think I am too young to recall that era, but I do recall my great grandfather, Henry Whipple, who lived and worked on the Whipple homestead at the top of the Altamont hill. My dad, Bob Whipple, spent much of his childhood hanging around the farm and helping his Uncle Bob and Grandpa. Daddy was born in 1930 and his grandparents were born in the 1870’s. Based on the stories Daddy told in his book of reminicences, I think we can assume that before WWII, life in the Helderbergs was not all that much changed from 1822.
So, to begin at the beginning, Malachi Whipple arrived in what is now Knox around 1793 with his father, Amos, and probably some younger siblings. Malachi, was born about 1768 in Stonington, CT, had trained to be a blacksmith, and moved from CT to the Albany area. He leased a tract of land from Stephen Van Rensselaer, III. Job One was to clear enough land for pasture, hay, crops and building a farmstead. In 1796 he married Priscilla Brown, the daughter of another CT Yankee, in the New Salem Dutch Reformed Church. The house they built was very much in the style of New England homes of the 1700’s. It probably didn’t have a lot of rooms, but they raised 13 children there, seven daughters and six sons. Many families from New England came to NY at the behest of Stephen Van Rensselaer, the Good Patroon, to settle lands that had not previously been occupied. The offer was that the farmers could have seven years rent free to clear and build on the land. After that, they would be given a “durable lease”. I imagine that there were no available farms in CT and that with the population growing, emigration was inevitable. For example, in 1790, there were 17 Whipple heads of household in Stonington, CT. The offer of “free” land was probably irresistible. It didn’t turn out to be such a great deal, but most settlers made the best of it, having put in seven years of effort.
These early settlers were essentially taming a wilderness, using only hand tools. It was back breaking work to clear forested land, remove as many stumps as possible, with just an ax, perhaps a cross saw, and a horse, and plow fields on the stony land of the Helderbergs. The limestone soil is thin, and in many places on the Whipple farm the underlying rock is visible. They would have built their homes themselves, perhaps with neighbors lending a hand to get a frame up, hewing the beams by hand. There were few roads, perhaps a meetinghouse, but no resident pastor, no stores, or schools. When they did manage to get land clear and plant a crop the planting and harvesting was also done by hand, broadcasting seed, cutting the straw with a scythe, gathering the wheat or oats into bundles and stacking them to dry, then separating the grain from the straw with a flail and winnowing basket. Hay was also cut with the scythe, raked with a large wooden hay rake and then stacked in the fields. It was all hands to the job—women and children would have helped get the precious crops in.
Farm families at that time were more or less self-sufficient, growing, raising and building most of what they needed themselves. Early crops were winter wheat, barley and Indian corn. They also grew pumpkins, oats, rye, hemp or flax, potatoes, hops for sale or the brewing of ale, and no doubt a kitchen garden including onions, beans, peas, rutabagas, turnips, rhubarb, herbs and so forth. They would have planted an orchard, consisting mostly of several varieties of apples, for eating and making cider, but also other fruit trees, and the housewife and children would have gathered grapes, berries, currants and other useful plants. They would have kept a few animals: a cow or two, sheep, swine and fowl. Some may have kept oxen, but horses soon became the favored beast of burden. I know a lot has been said about the Patroon system and the Anti-rent wars, so we won’t dwell on that, other than to point out that the rents were paid in bushels of wheat, fat fowl, and a day’s labor with a team of oxen or horses. So, we know that these early settlers had to have produced grain crops, and kept chickens, ducks or geese. They sold butter and cheese for cash to buy the things they could not make at home, such as salt, sugar and iron tools. Farmers built their barns, out buildings, fences, furniture and tools from wood cut on the farm. For example, I have in my home a cherry table hand built on the Whipple Farm, dating to around 200 years ago. They made potash, by burning wood, a useful ingredient especially in making soap. There would have been a wood lot on the farm set aside to provide lumber and firewood.
In addition to the house and barn the farmstead would likely have eventually included a smokehouse for preserving meat, a pigsty, perhaps a henhouse, later on maybe an ice house, and of course the “necessary”. When I was growing up on the Knox-Gallupville Road, we had all of these except an icehouse, and in addition there was a granary, used for storing oats. Farmers would have had to locate a source of fresh water for their own use and to water their stock. Streams, and springs are widespread here, and if neither were available a well would have to be dug. Malachi was able to harness water from a spring on high ground to supply his farm. There was also a large dug well in the field behind the barn. My great grandmother, Susie, worried about the “babies” (toddlers) finding that well, though it was far from the house.
By 1807, what we now know as Route 20 had been built, and work on the road we call 443 was under way. After a couple generations of growing wheat, the soils became exhausted and other crops became more prevalent, such as barley, oats, and buckwheat. By the 1830’s a move toward dairy farming began. Improvements in highways and later the railroads made dairy farming a profitable choice, as there was a demand for milk, cream, cheeses and butter in the cities.
On the distaff side, life in the early days was also very busy.
Besides keeping the garden, helping in the fields at harvest time, and no doubt also taking care of at least some of the livestock, the Helderberg housewife had to feed, clothe and care for her family. Many products we are accustomed to buying were made at home. Not just soap and candles, but tooth powder, baking soda, and yeast. Ingredients such as molasses, lard, suet, barley and cornmeal were staples, locally produced. Honey and maple syrup were the most common sweeteners. All the parts of a slaughtered animal were used. Examples are steak and kidney pie, cow heels, brains, calf’s head, tongue, and scrapple or head cheese. Most of these are not common on today’s menu. Families did their own slaughtering, sometimes with neighbors lending a hand. Mincemeat was popular and made with ground beef or venison and suet, along with apples and raisins. Food from the garden and meats had to be preserved by smoking, root cellaring, drying, pickling or salting. Eventually canning came into use. And later, ice boxes allowed homemakers to keep things cold. Ice was cut from Thompsons and Warner’s Lakes and hauled to homes around the area even in the 1930’s. A typical farm breakfast might include eggs, sausage or ham, potatoes, and griddlecakes. Frank Hart, who ran the mill in Berne was quoted as saying that the move away from Indian meal griddlecakes on every breakfast plate in the 1920’s heralded the end of local grist mills. Some of you will remember his son Milton Hart, who ran the GLF, later the Agway, in Berne.
Home remedies were common, with ingredients that sound just plain dangerous to us. Here is a recipe for “Powders to make a horse eat”:
2 oz aloes
2 oz saltpeter
3 oz aniseed
1 oz cream of tartar
1 oz Spanish fly
2 oz borax
½ lb rosin
Turpentine, myrrh, ammonia, oil of tar and even sulphuric acid were all common ingredients in treating horses, and perhaps people.
Clothing was made at home, from wool and flax grown on the farm, spun into thread or yarn, woven into cloth, and sewn. Stockings, gloves and perhaps hats were knitted. Both materials involved many steps in the process to get from a shorn fleece, or the cut flax stems, to something that could be used for clothing.
In 1820, Malachi Whipple won a silver cup for the Model Farm in Albany Co. This was part of an effort by the state to encourage agriculture. A committee would visit the farms, inspecting crops and submitting a report. Two prizes were given in 1820—one to Annanais Platt in Bethlehem and one to Malachi Whipple of Berne.
An Agricultural Jubilee Ploughboy Holiday was held in Albany with awards for best grain, linen, vegetables, and farming inventions; and a plowing competition. There were amusements and speeches and dinner for 100.
In 1825 Malachi moved to Berne, selling his farm to his son Amos. He purchased the property where Weidman’s mill had burnt, made improvements to the dam at Warner’s Lake, to provide better water power, and rebuilt the grist mill (later Hart’s Mill) in 1832. Then (with Lyman Dwight and William Ball) he built a wool carding and fulling mill on the Foxenkill. Carding is a process of separating the wool fibers to prepare them to be spun. Fulling is the process by which the woven cloth is prepared to use. It is washed in hot water and soap to remove dirt and oils, and agitated causing the wool fibers swell and felt slightly, making a denser, softer cloth than what comes off the loom. There were other mills downstream. Malachi also, with Jacob Settle and others, lent some money to Daniel Simmons, who built and operated an ax factory in Berne. Unfortunately, due to transportation issues, the business failed in 1833 and Simmons moved his operation to Cohoes. He assigned the remaining business assets to Whipple, Settle and Abel French, leaving the lenders liable for Simmons’ debts. The debts were so large that it took their life savings to pay the amounts due, and the debt was never repaid by Simmons. In addition, many local men were left unemployed. Malachi was so crushed by the situation that his health was affected. In 1835 he was stricken with a paralysis and never recovered his speech. He died in 1836. Priscilla, born in 1777, died in 1860 at the age of 82. Their children were scattered, to Berne, Boston, Altamont and some as far as Philadelphia. There were many grandchildren, but the Whipple’s died out in Berne, and Altamont and our line in Knox is the only one remaining in the area today.
Amos Whipple II was Malachi’s oldest son, and was born in 1798. He married Maria Pinckney in 1817. They had seven children, including Malachi, Thomas, John and Alfred Alonzo, known as Alonzo. We don’t know if Amos took an active part in the Anti-Rent wars, but he did cease paying his annual rents to the Van Rensselaer’s in 1839, about the time that the conflict began, signifying that he must have supported the anti-rent movement. In 1856 Amos sold the west half of the farm on what is now Old Stage Road, to his son John. At the time of his death, about 1860, his sons John and Alfred Alonzo (known as Alonzo), were both living on the farm, in two houses, according to the census. We do not know the location of the second house. By 1870, John, having no surviving children, had sold the west half of the farm and moved away. The east half of the farm remained with his younger brother Alonzo. Benjamin Gallup eventually purchased the land on Old Stage Road, and built the house where my grandparents raised their family.
Alfred Alonzo Whipple was born in 1826. He married Helen Hungerford in 1850. They had five children. We can learn a bit about life in that era from the farm ledgers. A new stove was purchased for the princely sum of $15 and coal deliveries were started. Flour was $7 a barrel, butter was under 30 cents a pound, a barrel of cider was $3. Wood, wagon repairs, and road work with the team were seasonal entries.
Life was not easy for Alonzo and Helen. While they were raising their family, the Civil War was going on. Their only daughter, 12 years of age and son Willie, 5 years old, died a year apart in 1864 and ’65. The Invasion of Knox, by Col. Walter S. Church occurred in 1865, with the soldiers camped just up near the intersection of the Thompson’s Lake and Warner’s Lake Roads. That was more or less the end of the Anti-Rent war, but it was another 15 or more years before all the leases had been settled.
There were also positive changes to the neighborhood. The train station was built in Altamont in 1863, bringing new people to the area. In 1872, James Wasson built his summer home, called Mira Vista, the beginning a relationship between the Wasson’s and four generations of Whipple’s. Many other grand summer homes were built in the 1870’s and ‘80’s, including the famous Cassidy’s Castle, the Cobb estate, and Walter Church’s resort hotel Kushaqua, later the LaSalette Seminary. In 1893, the Altamont Fairgrounds was opened. These all provided markets for butter, milk, eggs, fruit, vegetables and meat, as well as transportation and other services provided by local farmers and tradesmen. By then, Helen and Alonzo had bought out the lease from Walter Church and the farm was truly theirs. Alonzo passed away in 1901. His youngest son, my great grandpa Henry Whipple, took over the farm.
Henry Alonzo Whipple was born in 1871. He married Susan Roach in 1895. Initially, they lived in a tenant house on the Wasson farm and Great Grandpa was the coachman, hostler and probably also a helper in the farm work. In 1899 they had their first child, Alfred Alonzo Whipple, my grandfather. My great grandmother was a striking young woman, and was photographed by Emma Justin Farnsworth, a friend of Miss Jenny Wasson in 1899. Her prize-winning photographs appeared in and on the cover of The Youths Companion. In 1905 they moved up to the farm, with their two little sons, Alfred and Bob. Henry and Susan had put 2 dormers and a porch on the house, built a new barn (the old one had burned down) and removed the huge central chimney and 3 fireplaces, replacing them with kerosene stoves. The space formerly occupied by the chimney became a small, windowless room, known to us as the “chimney bedroom”. It was a special room for Brian and I as children because that was where Great Grandma Susie kept the toys. They also built two guest cottages and took in summer borders. This meant Susie had to have hired girls to help with the cooking, cleaning and laundry. In 1911 their third child, Henrietta, was born. Henry kept cows, quarried stone, hauled ice in the winter and provided transportation between the resort hotels on Thompsons Lake and the railroad in Altamont. In the 1920’s Henry was working with a team of horses in the fields on Old Stage Road when a storm came up. The horses returned home without him and when he was found it was discovered that he had been struck by lightning. He recovered, but his legs were damaged and troubled him as he grew older.
During the depression Henry deeded some land at the southwest part of the farm containing a good spring of water to B. C. Cobb and supervised the building of two reservoirs. Pipes were laid to the Cobb estate and a swimming pool was built. Henry was also able to buy back the west half of the original farm, after Beebe Gallup passed away. Although times were hard, farm families were fortunate to have chickens, pigs and cows, so they had a ready supply of food.
These years brought great change to life on the hill. Cars began to appear, and in 1919 Henry purchased one for the family to use. In the 1930’s the rural electrification program brought power to the Hilltowns. People were beginning to use tractors. Phones were installed. By that time, many farm implements had been invented which could be pulled by the horses and powered by the wheels turning to mow or rake hay and so forth. And newer more powerful implements, pulled or powered by tractors, such as reaper binders, and powered mower bars were possible. Still, many farms still depended on horse power. And while there was mechanization, it was still labor intensive, with someone riding on the baler to fasten the wires on the bales, or on the combine to tie off the sacks of oats.
My father remembered his grandfather keeping two teams of horses—a light team (Pete and Molly) for mowing, raking hay, perhaps pulling a carriage; and a heavy team, of bigger stronger horses, for pulling wagons, plowing, plowing snow, hauling the reaper, and so on. The heavy team were known as “the Blacks”, and it was Daddy’s delight to bring them in from the pasture lot when they were needed. This would have been around 1940. He learned how to harness them, and drive the team. In fact, Daddy drove Vicki McCaffrey’s team of Shire horses in the Knox Sesquicentennial Parade in 1972. I don’t think I ever saw him so happy. My great grandfather never learned to drive a car or truck, but farmed with horses. Uncle Bob did drive and until he married in 1943, lived at home. Alfred also helped out when he could.
My Dad recalled that threshing was done communally. The oats would be cut and set in shocks to dry for a couple of weeks. Hans Herzog was the thresher, and would bring his machine. It was a stationary thresher, run off a tractor engine. Great care was needed by Hans and his boys to line the machinery up just right so the long belt between the pulleys would work correctly. Neighbors would bring their teams and wagons and all day they would haul bundles of oats to the thresher. That meant 2 or more men picking up the oats and another man on the wagon stacking them neatly so the man feeding the thresher could handle them easily. There would be a team of men putting the oats into the thresher and running the bagger. Then others would haul the sacks of grain to a bin in the barn. The straw would be baled later on, with a stationary baler, producing bales weighing over 100 lbs. The ladies had their share of the work too, making a huge midday meal for all the men working. The thresher went from farm to farm, and at each place there would be neighbors helping and needing to be fed.
Henry died in 1960, having owned and worked the Whipple farm for 55 years, and the east, or lower, part of the farm passed to his son Bob, who had been his right-hand man for many years, both on the farm and as superintendent of highways. Bob sold the farm, and the land was subdivided. Henry’s barn is gone, but the house still stands. Grace and Alfred were left the land on Old Stage Road and it remains in the family to this day, occupied by their younger son Henry Alfred Whipple and his off-spring.
In addition to farming, the Whipple’s were often involved in the civic life of the town. In 1807 Malachi Whipple was commissioned a Lt. in the Militia; he was one of the organizers of the first Agricultural Society in Albany Co; he was the Supervisor of the town of Berne for several years up to 1821, and then Supervisor of the new town of Knox in 1822-1824. He was a member of the County Assembly in 1826. In 1831-33 he was again Supervisor in Berne.
In 1849 Amos Whipple deeded one acre of land to the town of Knox already in use as a graveyard, known first as the Whipple Cemetery and now as High Point Cemetery. The earliest graves are from around 1795, and the stones bear the names of early settlers, such as Gallup, Chesebro, Clickman, Crary, French, Seabury, Dennison, and Williams, as well as 7 generations of Whipple’s.
Alonzo’s brother Thomas, a shoemaker, enlisted and served in the Civil War, and returned, unharmed, to his family.
Henry Whipple served the town as a welfare officer for 18 years, and tax collector for several years. He also served Knox as superintendent of highways, for seven years prior to 1938. His sons or members of the road crew would pick him up to go to the job sites. He was in charge of 60 miles of dirt road, often bordered by stone walls and brush, which formed a natural wind break, so snow was sometimes there until April. Back then, they usually just rolled the snow to make it smooth for the sleighs. The town did own a couple of trucks and a plow, but they had to shovel ahead of the plow to break the snow up.
My grandfather, Alfred Whipple, was the only member of our line who was not a farmer. He enlisted in the Army in 1918, serving briefly, until WWI ended. In August 1929, he married Grace Briggs. 2 months later the stock market crashed and in May 1930, their first child, Robert Briggs Whipple, was born. They lived in an apartment on Maple Avenue in Altamont and Grandpa worked for Barber and Bennet Feed Co. driving a delivery truck and moving heavy bags of feed. In 1938, Alfred became ill, and unable to work. They moved with their two children, Bobby and Ann, to the former Gallup house on Old Stage Road. It did not yet have electricity, or central heat. Due to his health, Alfred could not do heavy work, but worked for a neighbor and helped on the farm for a couple of years to make ends meet. He was hired to be the policeman for the village of Altamont in 1940. The post was a 24-7-365 job that included driving the ambulance. He was also the Air Raid Warden for Altamont during WWII. In 1946, Henry was born. Alfred remained as policeman until just before his death. On his retirement, in May 1961, he was honored by the village with Al Whipple Day, a full day of celebration, including a parade, presentations, and a dinner. He died on January 1, 1962.
My father, Bob Whipple, grew up on Old Stage Road and, having spent every spare moment at the farm, knew what he wanted to do from an early age. When he was 11 years old his grandfather gave him a pony, named Lightning, beginning a life-long love of horses. Daddy would come home from school, hop on his pony and head down the road to his grandparents. When he outgrew the pony, he acquired a horse, named Major. By the end of WWII, Bobby, as he was known then, was a big kid, able to help with the farm work and a skilled rider. While still in high school, he bought a small tractor and went around the village of Altamont plowing victory gardens. After graduating from Berne-Knox, in 1949, he rented a barn and was milking cows on Warner’s Lake Road even before he bought a dairy farm on the Knox-Gallupville Road in October 1952. A month later he married my mother, Anne Coogan. He farmed there and on many other patches of land in the Hilltowns for the next 55 years, producing milk, grains, hay and his famous sweet corn. In 1983, he purchased the Bassler farm on Route 156 and moved there, naming it Malachi Farm. He no longer milked cows, but continued to grow hay and corn and added a sap house, and then a vegetable stand. From the start, my father used modern methods, and mechanization and was able to work far more land, and more efficiently, than his predecessors. In my own lifetime, I have witnessed the big changes in agriculture: larger tractors, plows, and other implements, kicker balers, huge self-propelled combines, and grain handled in bulk, not sacks. Herbicides replaced tillers, pipeline milking machines replaced hand milking and carrying milk in buckets. Bulk tanks replaced milk cans. Just the last 60 years have seen more changes than the previous 160.
Bob served Knox on the Town Board as a Justice of the Peace for 6 years, was involved in town politics for many years, sold insurance and then real estate and loved this town his whole life. His brother Henry has also been active in town affairs, as a volunteer fireman and a member of the Town Board as a Councilman for five years. My brother, Brian Whipple, continues the family tradition, farming in Knox, on Malachi Farm.
Many thanks to my uncle and aunt, Henry and Pat Whipple, for creating and setting up this wonderful display, and for loaning Malachi’s silver cup, artifacts and other memorabilia.
My sincere thanks to Pat Taylor Whipple, who did much of the family history research for this talk.
Also, I gleaned useful information in:
A Gift of Heritage, Robert B. Whipple
Old Hellebergh, Arthur B. Gregg
Tin Horns and Calico, Henry Christman
Landlords and Farmers in the Hudson-Mohawk Region, 1790-1850, David Maldwyn Ellis
The Altamont Enterprise, 1889, 1903, 1905
The Helderberg Housewife, Uhai Yorkers, Berne-Knox Central School
Thank you for coming and thank you for listening.
By Deborah Whipple Degan
I was asked to talk a bit about my family’s experience of farm life in the Helderbergs in the 19th century. You might think I am too young to recall that era, but I do recall my great grandfather, Henry Whipple, who lived and worked on the Whipple homestead at the top of the Altamont hill. My dad, Bob Whipple, spent much of his childhood hanging around the farm and helping his Uncle Bob and Grandpa. Daddy was born in 1930 and his grandparents were born in the 1870’s. Based on the stories Daddy told in his book of reminicences, I think we can assume that before WWII, life in the Helderbergs was not all that much changed from 1822.
So, to begin at the beginning, Malachi Whipple arrived in what is now Knox around 1793 with his father, Amos, and probably some younger siblings. Malachi, was born about 1768 in Stonington, CT, had trained to be a blacksmith, and moved from CT to the Albany area. He leased a tract of land from Stephen Van Rensselaer, III. Job One was to clear enough land for pasture, hay, crops and building a farmstead. In 1796 he married Priscilla Brown, the daughter of another CT Yankee, in the New Salem Dutch Reformed Church. The house they built was very much in the style of New England homes of the 1700’s. It probably didn’t have a lot of rooms, but they raised 13 children there, seven daughters and six sons. Many families from New England came to NY at the behest of Stephen Van Rensselaer, the Good Patroon, to settle lands that had not previously been occupied. The offer was that the farmers could have seven years rent free to clear and build on the land. After that, they would be given a “durable lease”. I imagine that there were no available farms in CT and that with the population growing, emigration was inevitable. For example, in 1790, there were 17 Whipple heads of household in Stonington, CT. The offer of “free” land was probably irresistible. It didn’t turn out to be such a great deal, but most settlers made the best of it, having put in seven years of effort.
These early settlers were essentially taming a wilderness, using only hand tools. It was back breaking work to clear forested land, remove as many stumps as possible, with just an ax, perhaps a cross saw, and a horse, and plow fields on the stony land of the Helderbergs. The limestone soil is thin, and in many places on the Whipple farm the underlying rock is visible. They would have built their homes themselves, perhaps with neighbors lending a hand to get a frame up, hewing the beams by hand. There were few roads, perhaps a meetinghouse, but no resident pastor, no stores, or schools. When they did manage to get land clear and plant a crop the planting and harvesting was also done by hand, broadcasting seed, cutting the straw with a scythe, gathering the wheat or oats into bundles and stacking them to dry, then separating the grain from the straw with a flail and winnowing basket. Hay was also cut with the scythe, raked with a large wooden hay rake and then stacked in the fields. It was all hands to the job—women and children would have helped get the precious crops in.
Farm families at that time were more or less self-sufficient, growing, raising and building most of what they needed themselves. Early crops were winter wheat, barley and Indian corn. They also grew pumpkins, oats, rye, hemp or flax, potatoes, hops for sale or the brewing of ale, and no doubt a kitchen garden including onions, beans, peas, rutabagas, turnips, rhubarb, herbs and so forth. They would have planted an orchard, consisting mostly of several varieties of apples, for eating and making cider, but also other fruit trees, and the housewife and children would have gathered grapes, berries, currants and other useful plants. They would have kept a few animals: a cow or two, sheep, swine and fowl. Some may have kept oxen, but horses soon became the favored beast of burden. I know a lot has been said about the Patroon system and the Anti-rent wars, so we won’t dwell on that, other than to point out that the rents were paid in bushels of wheat, fat fowl, and a day’s labor with a team of oxen or horses. So, we know that these early settlers had to have produced grain crops, and kept chickens, ducks or geese. They sold butter and cheese for cash to buy the things they could not make at home, such as salt, sugar and iron tools. Farmers built their barns, out buildings, fences, furniture and tools from wood cut on the farm. For example, I have in my home a cherry table hand built on the Whipple Farm, dating to around 200 years ago. They made potash, by burning wood, a useful ingredient especially in making soap. There would have been a wood lot on the farm set aside to provide lumber and firewood.
In addition to the house and barn the farmstead would likely have eventually included a smokehouse for preserving meat, a pigsty, perhaps a henhouse, later on maybe an ice house, and of course the “necessary”. When I was growing up on the Knox-Gallupville Road, we had all of these except an icehouse, and in addition there was a granary, used for storing oats. Farmers would have had to locate a source of fresh water for their own use and to water their stock. Streams, and springs are widespread here, and if neither were available a well would have to be dug. Malachi was able to harness water from a spring on high ground to supply his farm. There was also a large dug well in the field behind the barn. My great grandmother, Susie, worried about the “babies” (toddlers) finding that well, though it was far from the house.
By 1807, what we now know as Route 20 had been built, and work on the road we call 443 was under way. After a couple generations of growing wheat, the soils became exhausted and other crops became more prevalent, such as barley, oats, and buckwheat. By the 1830’s a move toward dairy farming began. Improvements in highways and later the railroads made dairy farming a profitable choice, as there was a demand for milk, cream, cheeses and butter in the cities.
On the distaff side, life in the early days was also very busy.
Besides keeping the garden, helping in the fields at harvest time, and no doubt also taking care of at least some of the livestock, the Helderberg housewife had to feed, clothe and care for her family. Many products we are accustomed to buying were made at home. Not just soap and candles, but tooth powder, baking soda, and yeast. Ingredients such as molasses, lard, suet, barley and cornmeal were staples, locally produced. Honey and maple syrup were the most common sweeteners. All the parts of a slaughtered animal were used. Examples are steak and kidney pie, cow heels, brains, calf’s head, tongue, and scrapple or head cheese. Most of these are not common on today’s menu. Families did their own slaughtering, sometimes with neighbors lending a hand. Mincemeat was popular and made with ground beef or venison and suet, along with apples and raisins. Food from the garden and meats had to be preserved by smoking, root cellaring, drying, pickling or salting. Eventually canning came into use. And later, ice boxes allowed homemakers to keep things cold. Ice was cut from Thompsons and Warner’s Lakes and hauled to homes around the area even in the 1930’s. A typical farm breakfast might include eggs, sausage or ham, potatoes, and griddlecakes. Frank Hart, who ran the mill in Berne was quoted as saying that the move away from Indian meal griddlecakes on every breakfast plate in the 1920’s heralded the end of local grist mills. Some of you will remember his son Milton Hart, who ran the GLF, later the Agway, in Berne.
Home remedies were common, with ingredients that sound just plain dangerous to us. Here is a recipe for “Powders to make a horse eat”:
2 oz aloes
2 oz saltpeter
3 oz aniseed
1 oz cream of tartar
1 oz Spanish fly
2 oz borax
½ lb rosin
Turpentine, myrrh, ammonia, oil of tar and even sulphuric acid were all common ingredients in treating horses, and perhaps people.
Clothing was made at home, from wool and flax grown on the farm, spun into thread or yarn, woven into cloth, and sewn. Stockings, gloves and perhaps hats were knitted. Both materials involved many steps in the process to get from a shorn fleece, or the cut flax stems, to something that could be used for clothing.
In 1820, Malachi Whipple won a silver cup for the Model Farm in Albany Co. This was part of an effort by the state to encourage agriculture. A committee would visit the farms, inspecting crops and submitting a report. Two prizes were given in 1820—one to Annanais Platt in Bethlehem and one to Malachi Whipple of Berne.
An Agricultural Jubilee Ploughboy Holiday was held in Albany with awards for best grain, linen, vegetables, and farming inventions; and a plowing competition. There were amusements and speeches and dinner for 100.
In 1825 Malachi moved to Berne, selling his farm to his son Amos. He purchased the property where Weidman’s mill had burnt, made improvements to the dam at Warner’s Lake, to provide better water power, and rebuilt the grist mill (later Hart’s Mill) in 1832. Then (with Lyman Dwight and William Ball) he built a wool carding and fulling mill on the Foxenkill. Carding is a process of separating the wool fibers to prepare them to be spun. Fulling is the process by which the woven cloth is prepared to use. It is washed in hot water and soap to remove dirt and oils, and agitated causing the wool fibers swell and felt slightly, making a denser, softer cloth than what comes off the loom. There were other mills downstream. Malachi also, with Jacob Settle and others, lent some money to Daniel Simmons, who built and operated an ax factory in Berne. Unfortunately, due to transportation issues, the business failed in 1833 and Simmons moved his operation to Cohoes. He assigned the remaining business assets to Whipple, Settle and Abel French, leaving the lenders liable for Simmons’ debts. The debts were so large that it took their life savings to pay the amounts due, and the debt was never repaid by Simmons. In addition, many local men were left unemployed. Malachi was so crushed by the situation that his health was affected. In 1835 he was stricken with a paralysis and never recovered his speech. He died in 1836. Priscilla, born in 1777, died in 1860 at the age of 82. Their children were scattered, to Berne, Boston, Altamont and some as far as Philadelphia. There were many grandchildren, but the Whipple’s died out in Berne, and Altamont and our line in Knox is the only one remaining in the area today.
Amos Whipple II was Malachi’s oldest son, and was born in 1798. He married Maria Pinckney in 1817. They had seven children, including Malachi, Thomas, John and Alfred Alonzo, known as Alonzo. We don’t know if Amos took an active part in the Anti-Rent wars, but he did cease paying his annual rents to the Van Rensselaer’s in 1839, about the time that the conflict began, signifying that he must have supported the anti-rent movement. In 1856 Amos sold the west half of the farm on what is now Old Stage Road, to his son John. At the time of his death, about 1860, his sons John and Alfred Alonzo (known as Alonzo), were both living on the farm, in two houses, according to the census. We do not know the location of the second house. By 1870, John, having no surviving children, had sold the west half of the farm and moved away. The east half of the farm remained with his younger brother Alonzo. Benjamin Gallup eventually purchased the land on Old Stage Road, and built the house where my grandparents raised their family.
Alfred Alonzo Whipple was born in 1826. He married Helen Hungerford in 1850. They had five children. We can learn a bit about life in that era from the farm ledgers. A new stove was purchased for the princely sum of $15 and coal deliveries were started. Flour was $7 a barrel, butter was under 30 cents a pound, a barrel of cider was $3. Wood, wagon repairs, and road work with the team were seasonal entries.
Life was not easy for Alonzo and Helen. While they were raising their family, the Civil War was going on. Their only daughter, 12 years of age and son Willie, 5 years old, died a year apart in 1864 and ’65. The Invasion of Knox, by Col. Walter S. Church occurred in 1865, with the soldiers camped just up near the intersection of the Thompson’s Lake and Warner’s Lake Roads. That was more or less the end of the Anti-Rent war, but it was another 15 or more years before all the leases had been settled.
There were also positive changes to the neighborhood. The train station was built in Altamont in 1863, bringing new people to the area. In 1872, James Wasson built his summer home, called Mira Vista, the beginning a relationship between the Wasson’s and four generations of Whipple’s. Many other grand summer homes were built in the 1870’s and ‘80’s, including the famous Cassidy’s Castle, the Cobb estate, and Walter Church’s resort hotel Kushaqua, later the LaSalette Seminary. In 1893, the Altamont Fairgrounds was opened. These all provided markets for butter, milk, eggs, fruit, vegetables and meat, as well as transportation and other services provided by local farmers and tradesmen. By then, Helen and Alonzo had bought out the lease from Walter Church and the farm was truly theirs. Alonzo passed away in 1901. His youngest son, my great grandpa Henry Whipple, took over the farm.
Henry Alonzo Whipple was born in 1871. He married Susan Roach in 1895. Initially, they lived in a tenant house on the Wasson farm and Great Grandpa was the coachman, hostler and probably also a helper in the farm work. In 1899 they had their first child, Alfred Alonzo Whipple, my grandfather. My great grandmother was a striking young woman, and was photographed by Emma Justin Farnsworth, a friend of Miss Jenny Wasson in 1899. Her prize-winning photographs appeared in and on the cover of The Youths Companion. In 1905 they moved up to the farm, with their two little sons, Alfred and Bob. Henry and Susan had put 2 dormers and a porch on the house, built a new barn (the old one had burned down) and removed the huge central chimney and 3 fireplaces, replacing them with kerosene stoves. The space formerly occupied by the chimney became a small, windowless room, known to us as the “chimney bedroom”. It was a special room for Brian and I as children because that was where Great Grandma Susie kept the toys. They also built two guest cottages and took in summer borders. This meant Susie had to have hired girls to help with the cooking, cleaning and laundry. In 1911 their third child, Henrietta, was born. Henry kept cows, quarried stone, hauled ice in the winter and provided transportation between the resort hotels on Thompsons Lake and the railroad in Altamont. In the 1920’s Henry was working with a team of horses in the fields on Old Stage Road when a storm came up. The horses returned home without him and when he was found it was discovered that he had been struck by lightning. He recovered, but his legs were damaged and troubled him as he grew older.
During the depression Henry deeded some land at the southwest part of the farm containing a good spring of water to B. C. Cobb and supervised the building of two reservoirs. Pipes were laid to the Cobb estate and a swimming pool was built. Henry was also able to buy back the west half of the original farm, after Beebe Gallup passed away. Although times were hard, farm families were fortunate to have chickens, pigs and cows, so they had a ready supply of food.
These years brought great change to life on the hill. Cars began to appear, and in 1919 Henry purchased one for the family to use. In the 1930’s the rural electrification program brought power to the Hilltowns. People were beginning to use tractors. Phones were installed. By that time, many farm implements had been invented which could be pulled by the horses and powered by the wheels turning to mow or rake hay and so forth. And newer more powerful implements, pulled or powered by tractors, such as reaper binders, and powered mower bars were possible. Still, many farms still depended on horse power. And while there was mechanization, it was still labor intensive, with someone riding on the baler to fasten the wires on the bales, or on the combine to tie off the sacks of oats.
My father remembered his grandfather keeping two teams of horses—a light team (Pete and Molly) for mowing, raking hay, perhaps pulling a carriage; and a heavy team, of bigger stronger horses, for pulling wagons, plowing, plowing snow, hauling the reaper, and so on. The heavy team were known as “the Blacks”, and it was Daddy’s delight to bring them in from the pasture lot when they were needed. This would have been around 1940. He learned how to harness them, and drive the team. In fact, Daddy drove Vicki McCaffrey’s team of Shire horses in the Knox Sesquicentennial Parade in 1972. I don’t think I ever saw him so happy. My great grandfather never learned to drive a car or truck, but farmed with horses. Uncle Bob did drive and until he married in 1943, lived at home. Alfred also helped out when he could.
My Dad recalled that threshing was done communally. The oats would be cut and set in shocks to dry for a couple of weeks. Hans Herzog was the thresher, and would bring his machine. It was a stationary thresher, run off a tractor engine. Great care was needed by Hans and his boys to line the machinery up just right so the long belt between the pulleys would work correctly. Neighbors would bring their teams and wagons and all day they would haul bundles of oats to the thresher. That meant 2 or more men picking up the oats and another man on the wagon stacking them neatly so the man feeding the thresher could handle them easily. There would be a team of men putting the oats into the thresher and running the bagger. Then others would haul the sacks of grain to a bin in the barn. The straw would be baled later on, with a stationary baler, producing bales weighing over 100 lbs. The ladies had their share of the work too, making a huge midday meal for all the men working. The thresher went from farm to farm, and at each place there would be neighbors helping and needing to be fed.
Henry died in 1960, having owned and worked the Whipple farm for 55 years, and the east, or lower, part of the farm passed to his son Bob, who had been his right-hand man for many years, both on the farm and as superintendent of highways. Bob sold the farm, and the land was subdivided. Henry’s barn is gone, but the house still stands. Grace and Alfred were left the land on Old Stage Road and it remains in the family to this day, occupied by their younger son Henry Alfred Whipple and his off-spring.
In addition to farming, the Whipple’s were often involved in the civic life of the town. In 1807 Malachi Whipple was commissioned a Lt. in the Militia; he was one of the organizers of the first Agricultural Society in Albany Co; he was the Supervisor of the town of Berne for several years up to 1821, and then Supervisor of the new town of Knox in 1822-1824. He was a member of the County Assembly in 1826. In 1831-33 he was again Supervisor in Berne.
In 1849 Amos Whipple deeded one acre of land to the town of Knox already in use as a graveyard, known first as the Whipple Cemetery and now as High Point Cemetery. The earliest graves are from around 1795, and the stones bear the names of early settlers, such as Gallup, Chesebro, Clickman, Crary, French, Seabury, Dennison, and Williams, as well as 7 generations of Whipple’s.
Alonzo’s brother Thomas, a shoemaker, enlisted and served in the Civil War, and returned, unharmed, to his family.
Henry Whipple served the town as a welfare officer for 18 years, and tax collector for several years. He also served Knox as superintendent of highways, for seven years prior to 1938. His sons or members of the road crew would pick him up to go to the job sites. He was in charge of 60 miles of dirt road, often bordered by stone walls and brush, which formed a natural wind break, so snow was sometimes there until April. Back then, they usually just rolled the snow to make it smooth for the sleighs. The town did own a couple of trucks and a plow, but they had to shovel ahead of the plow to break the snow up.
My grandfather, Alfred Whipple, was the only member of our line who was not a farmer. He enlisted in the Army in 1918, serving briefly, until WWI ended. In August 1929, he married Grace Briggs. 2 months later the stock market crashed and in May 1930, their first child, Robert Briggs Whipple, was born. They lived in an apartment on Maple Avenue in Altamont and Grandpa worked for Barber and Bennet Feed Co. driving a delivery truck and moving heavy bags of feed. In 1938, Alfred became ill, and unable to work. They moved with their two children, Bobby and Ann, to the former Gallup house on Old Stage Road. It did not yet have electricity, or central heat. Due to his health, Alfred could not do heavy work, but worked for a neighbor and helped on the farm for a couple of years to make ends meet. He was hired to be the policeman for the village of Altamont in 1940. The post was a 24-7-365 job that included driving the ambulance. He was also the Air Raid Warden for Altamont during WWII. In 1946, Henry was born. Alfred remained as policeman until just before his death. On his retirement, in May 1961, he was honored by the village with Al Whipple Day, a full day of celebration, including a parade, presentations, and a dinner. He died on January 1, 1962.
My father, Bob Whipple, grew up on Old Stage Road and, having spent every spare moment at the farm, knew what he wanted to do from an early age. When he was 11 years old his grandfather gave him a pony, named Lightning, beginning a life-long love of horses. Daddy would come home from school, hop on his pony and head down the road to his grandparents. When he outgrew the pony, he acquired a horse, named Major. By the end of WWII, Bobby, as he was known then, was a big kid, able to help with the farm work and a skilled rider. While still in high school, he bought a small tractor and went around the village of Altamont plowing victory gardens. After graduating from Berne-Knox, in 1949, he rented a barn and was milking cows on Warner’s Lake Road even before he bought a dairy farm on the Knox-Gallupville Road in October 1952. A month later he married my mother, Anne Coogan. He farmed there and on many other patches of land in the Hilltowns for the next 55 years, producing milk, grains, hay and his famous sweet corn. In 1983, he purchased the Bassler farm on Route 156 and moved there, naming it Malachi Farm. He no longer milked cows, but continued to grow hay and corn and added a sap house, and then a vegetable stand. From the start, my father used modern methods, and mechanization and was able to work far more land, and more efficiently, than his predecessors. In my own lifetime, I have witnessed the big changes in agriculture: larger tractors, plows, and other implements, kicker balers, huge self-propelled combines, and grain handled in bulk, not sacks. Herbicides replaced tillers, pipeline milking machines replaced hand milking and carrying milk in buckets. Bulk tanks replaced milk cans. Just the last 60 years have seen more changes than the previous 160.
Bob served Knox on the Town Board as a Justice of the Peace for 6 years, was involved in town politics for many years, sold insurance and then real estate and loved this town his whole life. His brother Henry has also been active in town affairs, as a volunteer fireman and a member of the Town Board as a Councilman for five years. My brother, Brian Whipple, continues the family tradition, farming in Knox, on Malachi Farm.
Many thanks to my uncle and aunt, Henry and Pat Whipple, for creating and setting up this wonderful display, and for loaning Malachi’s silver cup, artifacts and other memorabilia.
My sincere thanks to Pat Taylor Whipple, who did much of the family history research for this talk.
Also, I gleaned useful information in:
A Gift of Heritage, Robert B. Whipple
Old Hellebergh, Arthur B. Gregg
Tin Horns and Calico, Henry Christman
Landlords and Farmers in the Hudson-Mohawk Region, 1790-1850, David Maldwyn Ellis
The Altamont Enterprise, 1889, 1903, 1905
The Helderberg Housewife, Uhai Yorkers, Berne-Knox Central School
Thank you for coming and thank you for listening.