tened to him on this occasion. He told the truth as a father does to a child; he spoke of the south since the war; he pleaded for unity of spirit in meeting our pressing national problems and exposed gently much of the smug hypocrisy which passes for superior political morality in the states north of the Ohio and Potomac. The Hon. Joseph II. Choate sent a warm congratulatory letter which was read aloud, as was another from President Hadley of Yale, the College where young Tilden tarried for a part of the statutory four years. There were present many guests distinguished in arts, letters, science and political life. The Tilden bust is in Ulster County, but it is on the grounds of his life long friend and literary executor, John Bigelow, who was born here in 1817, and who gave the old homestead to his son, Poultney Bigelow, a few years before his death. Tilden's natal County, Columbia, is contiguous, across the River and while Lebanon might make good claim to such a bust, there are many and strong sentimental reasons that contribute to make it precious to Ulster County in general and more particularly to the old Bigelow Homestead. BICENTENNIAL OF FISHKILL CHURCH On the first four days of the week beginning on Sunday, October 22, 1916, the First Reformed Dutch Church of Fishkill, N. Y., celebrated its 200th anniversary. The minister of the church is Rev. Charles Herge, D. D. The church was organized in 1716 by Rev. Petrus Vas of Kingston, and the house of worship is historic for the reason that the Provincial Convention met in it in 1776, and it was used as a military prison during the Revolution. For the bicentennial celebration the old communion service, which had been in the custody of the Metropolitan Museum of New York for two years, was taken to Fishkill. The inscription on the tankard is as follows: Presented by Samuel Verplanck, Esq., To the First Reformed To Commemorate Mr. Eglebert Huff, Prince of Orange (afterward King William III at Fishkill, 21 March, 1765, Fishkill January The principal events of the celebrations were as follows: Sunday morning, Communion service. Sunday afternoon, Rally Day service, by the Sunday school. Sunday evening, Home Coming service with historical address by Rev. Asher Anderson, D.D., of Randolph, Mass. Monday evening, Anniversary service, with address by Rev. W. I. Chamberlain, Ph.D., of New York City. Tuesday afternoon, Installation service, at which Rev. Charles Herge, D.D., was installed as minister. The officiating clergy were Rev. Clifford P. Case, D.D., of Poughkeepsie, Rev. Wm. A. Service of Hopewell, Rev. Arthur C. V. Dangremond of Beacon, and Rev. Adison C. Bird of Poughkeepsie. Tuesday evening, Fraternal service, with address by Rev. Daniel H. Martin, D.D., of the Fort Washington Presbyterian church of New York City. Wednesday evening, Civil service, with addresses by IIon. Edmund Platt and Hon. Frank Hasbrouck. The ministers of the church since it was organized in 1716 by Rev. Petrus Vas have been as follows: *The text of this inscription has been verified for us by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, particularly with reference to the extraordinary age here mentioned. TEMPLE HILL MONUMENT OFFERED TO STATE On January 25, 1917, Hon. John D. Stivers of Middletown introduced in the Senate, and on January 29 Hon. Wm. F. Brush of Newburgh introduced in the Assembly, a bill providing for the acceptance by the State of the parcel of land in New Windsor, Orange County, N. Y. on which the Temple Hill monument stands. The property and monument were offered by the Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands. The bill provided that the Trustees of Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh should have the care and management of the property, and appropriated $500 for fencing the land and opening the right of way.* The parcel of land to be conveyed is to be a plot seventy-five feet square, and the conveyance is to include a free and unobstructed right of way along a parcel of land thirty feet wide running from the parcel above described westwardly to the nearest highway; and is also to include the monument. The conveyance is to be by deed satisfactory in form to the attorney-general which shall be duly executed and acknowledged and shall be subject to no liens, covenants or restrictions. The State is to keep the right of way in good order and condition and passable at all times for vehicles and foot passengers, and is to build and maintain fences. on each side of said right of way, and build and maintain a fence around the parcel of land first described; and the premises are to be maintained forever as a memorial of the historical events which occurred there. The "Temple," from which Temple Hill derives its name, was a wooden structure erected in the winter of 1782-3, while the Continental army was still in the neighboring cantonment awaiting the formalities of peace which should permit its disbandment. Its erection, proposed by Rev. Israel Evans, D. D., Chaplain of the *The bill was passed and became chapter 326 of the laws of 1917. New Hampshire brigade, was approved by Washington in general orders of Christmas day, 1782. The next day the officers met at Gen. Gates' headquarters and adopted plans for the building. Each regiment was required to furnish part of the lumber, shingles and other materials, and Col. Tupper was appointed to superintend the construction. In 1890, Major Edward C. Boynton, one of the Trustees of the Washington Headquarters in Newburgh, obtained from Luther L. Tarbell of Boston the original drawings of the building made by his father, William Tarbell, a soldier in the 7th Massachusetts regiment. The drawings and authentic descriptions show that it was a frame building on a stone foundation, and contained a hall large enough to hold a brigade of soldiers. The vault of the hall was arched. At each end was a room convenient for use for courts-martial and other military purposes, including levees and public meetings. It was officially mentioned as "the New Building" or "the Public Building", but was also popularly called "the Temple of Virtue," " the Temple " ""the and "the Chapel." The first assembly was held in the building on February 6, 1783, before it was finished, to celebrate the anniversary of the French alliance which had contributed so greatly to the American victory in 1781. In this building was enacted one of the most and solemn and impressive scenes in the history of the war. There was discontent in the army, owing to detention in camp, delay in pay, consequent involvement in personal debt, fear for the future, and a feeling that the States were ungrateful for the services which the aarmy had rendered. Mutiny was actually planned. In May, 1782, Col. Nicola addressed a letter to Washington, expressing the view that a republic would be an unstable form of government, and suggesting that Washington become the head of the new government in the capacity if not under the title of king. Washington indignantly repudiated the suggestion, and at a meeting held in the New Building on Saturday, March 15, 1783, he concluded an extraordinary address to the troops with these words: "Let me conjure you in the name of the common country, as you value your own sacred honor, as you respect the rights of humanity and the national character of America, to express the utmost horror and detestation of the man who wishes under any specious pretence to overturn the liberties of our country, who wickedly attempts to open the floodgates of civil discord and drench our rising Empire in blood. By thus determining and thus acting you will pursue the plain and direct road to the attainment of your wishes you will defeat the insidious designs of our enemies, who are compelled to resort from open force to secret artifice, and you will give one more distinguished proof of unexampled patriotism and patient virtue, rising superior to the most complicated sufferings, and you will by the dignity of your conduct afford occasion for posterity to say, when speaking of the glorious example you have exhibited to mankind: Iad this day been wanting, the world had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human virtue is capable of attaining." Temple Hill is about four miles in an air line southwest of Newburgh ferry landing and about half a mile north of Vail's Gate Junction on the Newburgh branch of the Erie railroad. Upon it is a monument (see plate 59) of random rubble stone in the shape of a tapering obelisk. Upon the four sides of the monument respectively are four granite tablets bearing the following inscriptions: (East side.) This Tablet is Inserted by the Masonic Fraternity WASHINGTON and His Masonic Compeers Under Whose Direction and Plans the Temple was Constructed and in Which Communications of the Fraternity Were Held 1788 (South side.) On This Ground Was Erected or New Public Building 1782-83 The Birthplace of the Republic, (West side.) Omnia Reliquit Servare Rempublicam Committee of the Cincinnati, 4 July, 1892 Thomas M. L. Chrystie, Chairman J Thomas M. L. Chry John Schuyler |