Have you noticed the new historical marker on New Scotland Road in Slingerlands? It honors the historic homestead of the Slingerland family in their namesake hamlet. The property was in the hands of that branch of the Slingerland family for over 150 years!
As you know, various historical items often come my way, including this lovely picture of Jane Kimmey Selkirk. And as you know, I am on the hunt for all things related to the Selkirk family.
Jane was born in 1829, the daughter of Mr. Kimmey * and Maria Niver. She married William Selkirk (1828-1913) in 1856. According to Selkirk family genealogy records, Jane and William had 6 children, John, David, James, Jess, Robert and Edward.
She lived her life in Cedar Hill and shows up regularly in the census living in Bethlehem. For example in the 1880 U.S. she is listed as "keeping house" with her husband, a carpenter, and three of their sons. Interestingly, in 1870 William is listed as a carpenter and hotel keeper. The 1855 N.Y. Census , the year before she married, captures her living with her sister Ann and Ann's husband Jacob Soop.
Jane died in 1919 and is buried with her family in Elmwood Cemetery.
Below is a picture of Edward Selkirk. I believe this is Jane's son who was a mail carrier in the hamlet of Selkirk for many years. Ed's full name is Edward Kimmey Selkirk - 1865-1946.
We are doing another Slingerlands Living History Walking Tour in a couple of weeks. It is a fun way to learn some local history!
The Friends of the Slingerland Family Burial Vault present a Slingerlands Living History Walking Tour on Sunday afternoon October 16.
Participants will enjoy an afternoon walking tour in the hamlet of Slingerlands that features costumed actors portraying local notables like Congressman John I. Slingerland and engineer William H. Slingerland. Other notables are star pitcher of the Slingerland Echo baseball team Adam Mattice and African American resident James Dickson. New this year are architect Grace Slingerland and attorney Ruth Miner
Tours step off at 2:00, 2:30 and 3:00 pm on Sunday October 16 from the picnic pavilion at the Slingerlands Fire Department, 1520 New Scotland Road.
Advance tickets are required and can be purchased through Eventbrite. https://slingerlandvault.eventbrite.com.
https://www.slingerlandvault.org/
You know one of my favorite happenings is when someone calls me out of the blue with random Bethlehem related history items. And in the last couple of weeks there have been two such calls!
The first was a load of stuff from a person's estate in Delmar. And yes, I am giving no details there as to preserve the donor's privacy. Highlights include old photos and diaries related to the Whitbeck and McCulloch family. Those have been passed along to the Bethlehem Historical Association as they have a large trove of items related to these families. Already, new light is being shed.
What I wanted to talk about today is this scrapbook.
The scrapbook was created by Mrs. Adeline Johnson. The photo is of Miss Laurella Butler. For many years, both were teachers at the Cedar Hill Schoolhouse when it was part of the Union Free School District (later Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk District). Mrs. Johnson 4th grade, Miss Butler 3rd grade. Both retired from the Cedar Hill school in 1962, about when that school was closed, right before it became the museum of the Bethlehem Historical Association.
The scrapbook has photos of 26 people who served during World War II, most of whom appear to be from South Bethlehem. Mrs. Johnson was teaching in the grade school there in 1937. I'm not exactly sure when she started at Cedar Hill.
Mrs. Johnson's "Boys" included one girl, 2nd Lieutenant Dolly Fourman.
.JPG)
It has been hard to find info about Lt. Fourman. I spent way too much time trying to find out if she married or anything else with no luck. All I know is the family lived in South Bethlehem about the time of the war. Her mother, Mrs. Charles Barba is, I think, Lettie Barba who is buried next to Charles Barba in Elmwood Cemetery. Her brother, Luther Fourman is pretty well documented in the newspapers and is also buried in Elmwood next to his wife Freda.
From the clipping below we know that she served with the Nurses Division at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky in 1943. And that is about it.
.jpg) |
| Ravena News Herald, July 30, 1943 |
 |
| The post hospital at Camp Breckinridge. Maybe Fourman served here? |
Mrs. Johnson also had a page for Dolly's brother Luther with a couple of interesting clips.
.JPG)
.JPG) |
As I have posted before, I'm working with BHA on a 1940s exhibit for the fall and you can be sure that Mrs. Johnson's scrapbook will make an appearance!
And a P.S.
The second donation was an album of postcards from Slingerlands and Normansville. Very excited about that one. There were many that I have never seen before. More info to come!
Isn't this a great looking patch?
I'm currently working with the Bethlehem Historical Association on an exhibit about what our town was like in the 1940s. It will, of course, look at World War II service people as well as the home front.
If you've got a minute, you can pop over to this blog post for a snippet from that era https://bethlehemnyhistory.blogspot.com/2019/06/a-wwii-story.html
As part of the exhibit prep, the committee is looking for things related to that era in Bethlehem. I found an Army uniform in an antique shop in Coxsackie and scooped it up for the exhibit. It had a couple of patches on it but no identifying information about who owned/wore the uniform.
Various websites concur about the imagery of the patch above. The thunder bolts are snapping the chains of Nazi oppression. The patch indicates service in the European Theatre of Operations - the ETO.
One site specifies that it is part of the ADSEC, the Advanced Section, Communications Zone, European Theater of Operations, United State Army. ADSEC supported the operations of the Army in a myriad of ways including establishing supply dumps and depots, reconstructing railways, repairing bridges and building fuel lines. One newspaper clipping I found reported that "One ADSEC Dump Has Food for 33,000,000 Army Meals" (Brooklyn Eagle, April 5, 1945)
Also on the uniform is the patch below. It has the wonderful nickname of the Ruptured Duck. This is an honorable discharge insignia that would have been sewn onto the uniform jacket after the veteran left military service.
With these two patches, we can speculate that the owner of the jacket served behind the lines in Europe suppling and supporting the front (maybe they were an engineer or truck driver or served in one of the ADSEC field hospitals) and that they were honorably discharged after their service.
If you have 1940s related memorabilia, especially with a Bethlehem connection, I'd love to hear from you. The BHA exhibit will be installed in the late fall this year - hopefully! We are planning to set up an "office" display and are on the look out for desk top items from that era, like fountain pens and an ash tray (remember when those were ubiquitous? - kind of hard to find these days!)
Feel free to email me, sleath@townofbethlehem.org
There are just too many James Selkirks. All of them are intriguing, but I am having a time sorting them all out.
My latest Selkirk family research lead me to this wonderful picture (thank you Sharon and Keleigh!)
A note with the photo says it is "James Selkirk who settled in Texas and fought for the south." But which James is it?
It is certainly not my # 1 James Selkirk (1757-1820), that is the Revolutionary War veteran, memoir writer, tailor, farmer who married Elizabeth Henry (1766-1844) in 1786.* And it is not his son James who died in 1821 because the image is a daguerreotype probably from the 1840s or 50s.
The person pictured has to be one of James and Elizabeth's two grandsons that are named James. Both of the cousins went to Texas.
The first possibility is James Selkirk (1815-1862) son of William Selkirk (1792-1828) and Matilda Hallenbake (1794-1820). William (son of #1 James) was the first to go to Texas about 1822. This James was born in Bethlehem and went to Texas after his father died out there.
The second is James Selkirk (c. 1824-1869), son of Robert Selkirk (1797-1872) and Maria Boucher (1802-1881). Robert is also a son of #1 James and a brother to William. That makes these two James cousins. A genealogist in the family, Theodore Selkirk, compiled an extensive Selkirk family tree and a descendant, Michael Wolf added to that with this paragraph:
"James Selkirk born circa 1824 died April 18, 1869 at Brenham Washington County Texas. Cousin of James Selkirk 1815-1862 and lived in Matagorda with him. Built the dock at Matagorda. In Confederate Army Capt. Co D 6th Texas Infantry. War record in National Archives, visited in prison of war camp at Columbus Ohio by his father Robert."
So there you have it. Add in the fact that this photo came down through the Willis family who are descendants of Robert and Maria, and I am pretty sure this is the right James Selkirk.
And just for fun, here's a picture of Robert Selkirk, father of James.
And here's a picture of his brother John
And his sister Lucinda Selkirk Leedings. Hopefully by now you see the family resemblance!
* I'm not even going to deal with the family tree on Ancestry that has my #1 James as the son of James Selkirk (1733-1758) who is the son of James Selkirk (1702-1727). Do you see how those dates don't really line up?
I am often thinking about barns as I drive around town. Have you noticed them tucked in here and there?
Barns, and the many other structures that are needed to run a farm, speak to Bethlehem's agricultural past and I really worry about them, especially when I notice a hole in the roof.
If you own a historic barn, the New York State Historic Barn Rehabilitation Tax Credit might be able to help. It is a New York income tax credit for up to 25% of the cost of the renovation. Find more details here : https://parks.ny.gov/shpo/tax-credit-programs/
And, if you want to learn more about what all those barns and out buildings are used for, check out this book. All of your barn questions will be answered!
Barns of New York Rural Architecture of the Empire State by Cynthia Falk.
All of the Bethlehem barn pictures in this post are stolen from google street view - just so I wouldn't have to go driving all over town :)
