Hudson-Fulton Celebration


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Life on a Rocky Farm


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Life on a Rocky Farm couples Lucas C. Barger's (1866–1939) eye for detail with a folksy, anecdotal style to give us a remarkable and memorable depiction of both the traditional ways of farm life, and the challenges the farmers faced as the times changed. Previously unpublished, Barger's first-hand account of farm life near New York City begins in the late nineteenth century. Little had changed for well over a century in the hilly and rugged terrain of Putnam Valley, where Lucas grew up as a member of the sixth generation of Barger farmers. But as the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, industrialization and mechanization decreased the demand for farm labor and farmers had to come up with alternate ways to make money. For a long time, supplemental income came from varied means such as beekeeping and using the local forest resources to provide railroad ties, ship timber, and barrel hoops. Wealthy summer boarders from New York City also provided some extra income, but despite the short distance, transportation remained arduous, and population growth did not occur until high improvements were made in the 1930s. Peter A. Rogerson's transcription reflects the flavor of Barger's original writing, as Barger himself said when he was first attempting to publish back in 1939, "I read something along back, that a publisher wrote, and he said, 'Do not change your style.' He claimed the style was sometimes the best part. And I guess that is what you are getting at. If you can call my scribbling a style, and you think it 'odd' use it any way you like. For my main intentions were to write an odd book as I told you once before."







Taking Our Water for the City


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Tap water enables the development of cities in locations with insufficient natural resources to support such populations. For the last 200 years, New York City has obtained water through a network of nineteen reservoirs and controlled lakes, some as far as 125-miles away. Engineering this water system required the demolition of rural communities, removal of cemeteries, and rerouting of roadways and waterways. The ruination is ongoing. This archaeological examination of the New York City watershed reveals the cultural costs of urban water systems. Urban water systems do more than reroute water from one place to another. At best, they redefine communities. At worst, they erase them.




New York State Censuses and Substitutes


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Census records and name lists for New York are found mostly at the county level, which is why this work shows precisely which census records or census substitutes exist for each of New York's sixty-two counties and where they can be found. In addition to the numerous statewide official censuses taken by New York, this work contains references to census substitutes and name lists for time periods in which the state did not take an official census. It also shows the location of copies of federal census records and provides county boundary maps and numerous state census facsimiles and extraction forms.




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