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From the Otsego Herald
for Saturday, May 5, 1810
Compiled, with comments
BY HUGH C. MACDOUGALL
THE LIBERTY POLE
(Scene, Pittsfield)
THE ARGUMENT
``The Adjutant began to pant,’’ And so did FLAGG and MOSES, And PRENTISS too, look’d very blue, At tar and feather doses.
Liberty Pole, upon my soul, Rose eighty feet, or higher, The tory squad began to plod, T’escape the WHIGS’ rais’d ire.
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Hell’s imps, And fed’ral pimps, Hover `round th’election, With ghastly mein, Like tories keen, For th’purpose of inspection.
Afull emetic, With joy ecstatic, Otsego town did take, Spew’d out imps And Fed’ral pimps, The number four doth make. Now boys attend, With tories blend, And raise the mighty faction, Stub toes, Tear clothes, With horrible distraction.
COMMENT: This charming little verse refers to the election, in which the Republicans (Jeffersonians) had carried Otsego County, although the Town of Otsego had voted Federalist. H. Flagg was a lawyer, who lived for a few years in Cooperstown in the early 1800s. I have not identified Moses. John Prentiss was the Editor of the ``Impartial Observer’’ (later renamed The Freeman’s Journal), which the Herald frequently disparaged as ``the imp.’’
MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE SALES
The Otsego Herald always included notices (often repeated for some time) of mortgage foreclosure sales. In this issue they included: Micah French, Jr., Worcester (1806 -- $800)
COMMENT: His father, Micah French, Sr., had in 1804 founded the Welcome Baptist Church of New Lisbon. Bildad Welch, of Butternuts (1807 -- $500)
COMMENT: Bildad Welch (1771-1823) came from East Windsor, CT, but lived in Otsego County from ca.
1800-1815 before moving to Delaware County, Ohio, where he died and is buried. In 1794 he married Lucy Aspinall, and they had 12 children, mostly born in New York.
Thomas Adams, of Cherry- Valley (1795 -- $400) John Hayes, of Cherry-Valley (1804 -- $643) John Rudd, Jun., of Richfield (1801 -- $100)
COMMENT: Both John Rudd, Jr. (1779-1856) and his father John Rudd, Sr. (1748-1830) lived in Richfield, and are listed in the 1800 US Census there. Both later moved to Erie County, Pennsylvania, where John Rudd Sr. traded his farm in Richfield for land there belonging to Solomon Spalding, who would become briefly head of the Cherry Valley Academy and whose unpublished novel has been alleged to be the source of Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon.
Dan Lyman, of Cherry-Valley (1795 - $395)Samuel Gary, of Cherry Valley (1795 - $532.50) Abel Parker, of Cherry-Valley (1795 - $397.50) COMMENT: This may be the Abel Parker (1769-1846) who came from Rhode Island and died in Cortland County. An Abel Parker is listed as living in Middlefield in 1800 and 1810, born about 1766.
THE ELECTION
Though no official returns have come to hand -- yet we have ascertained to our entire satisfaction, that the Election has terminated in the most signal and decisive victory of the republican interest of the state of New York, over that motley combination of foreign and domestic influence, which has arrayed itself throughout the union, under the fostering aid of the British government, against the constitution, laws and liberties of this country The Republican TOMPKINS, the people’s friend and favorite, is re-elected Governor, by a vast majority -- maugre (despite) all the consequence given by his opponents to the vile calumnies of a notorious robber of hen-roosts and hog-styes in Westchester county, and the petty larceny and black-guardism of Ruck a Tuck and Co. in this city.
The Republican Senators in every district, Eight in number, are also elected, together with a Republican Majority in the Assembly; and the people of the state have thus proved themselves superior to all the arts of intrigue, calumny and detraction, whether in the shape of a Pigstealer’s petition for an impeachment - a lying resolution of a legislative caucus - or a School Fund report, the offspring of meanness, malice and deception. - AMEN. - From the Albany Register
Columns
Otsego Herald: Mortgage foreclosure sales
- Columns
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Passing along advice of seeing the humor
The best advice given to me many years ago when I started teaching had nothing to do with my discipline, English. Rather, a former mentor insisted on the necessity of having a sense of humor
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Maryland port attacked
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Memoir reflects on 'roller-coaster life and career'
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Imagine what might have been ...
A while back we got a telephone call from a reader of this column wanting to know why we had not written a column in support of Otsego Manor continuing to be owned and operated by Otsego County. And even though we have followed the debate over this issue in the newspaper, we readily admitted we did not feel we knew enough about the situation to take a stand.
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Herpes virus brings harness racing to a halt
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Time, if not traffic, moves on ...
It is with sadness we note the passing of two people who we have known since moving to Cooperstown in 1982.
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Canadian capital captured
Dear Sir, I have just returned from Fort Niagara, where I saw a Captain of the United States' navy. He is just from little York, the capital of Upper Canada, and gives the following account, which is confirmed in official dispatches from Gen. Dearborn to Gen. Lewis ...
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Local Voices From Around The Globe: Exchange is like a life in a year
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Movie depicting legendary Jackie Robinson does not disappoint
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'Dubious' about weather, Hawkeyes 'suitable' nickname
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'Who's on Worst?' reveals the ugly in baseball
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Swallow talk and bluebird vigilance
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Local Voices From Around the Globe: Life in Hungry has taken a turn for the better
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The importance of speaking up ...
Over the years we have come to understand that, in writing a weekly column, it is not possible to always please everyone. And such was the case with our column that ran at the end of March in which we wrote about our experience as in inpatient following a total hip replacement.
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Public schools created
The Common School Act of 1812 marked the start of New York's public school system. Much of the credit for this was due to the radical Otsego County politician Jedediah Peck (1747-1821). To quote the NY Education Department:
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Book takes readers on path for equal rights
One of the most troubling aspects of our history is race relations. It takes a long time to achieve true equality in a society when the heritage of one ethnic group is slavery and Jim Crow laws. Even today African Americans are more likely to be stereotyped as athletes than doctors, lawyers or entrepreneurs. The path to a "color-blind" nation is still a work in progress.
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Local Voices From Around the Globe: Experiencing India at every new turn
Come, sit down. Hold this and, wait ... ah, there you go. Obeying these commands, I found myself seated on the pavement, wearing a turban and attempting to make sounds out of a recorder-like instrument for the black cobras in the baskets not two feet away from me.
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Passing along advice of seeing the humor
