Rombout Colonial Days Highlight Revolutionary Ties to Hudson Valley
The Brinckerhoff House, the headquarters for the East Fishkill Historical Society was built around 1750. With its hosting of the fourth annual Rombout Colonial Days in Hopewell Junction, it served as a time capsule, giving attendees a view into life during the American Revolution.
The colonial days featured a host of activities and demonstrations, including woodworking, blacksmithing, gunsmithing, cooking and baking, and tours of the historical house itself.
“When we started this four years ago, our main purpose was to educate and inform,” said Richard Soedler, president of the East Fishkill Historical Society. “Today, that’s still our number one priority, but we’ve also found that we have a lot of fun putting this on every year.”
Many of the living historians (who prefer that term over reenactors) show up purely out of love for what they do, which is evident in the enthusiasm with which they demonstrate their craft.
“I love the time period because it was a harder time but a simpler time,” James Fair, a living historian who can put more time toward the hobby in retirement, said. “My big thing is that I love learning new things and then using that knowledge in my interactions with the crowd.”
There are others, too. Lawrence Wood, a living historian based out of Hopewell Junction spared no expense in demonstrating the gruesome medical practices of the time to every group of onlookers that came over to his “office.” Jim Durr, Sr. and his son Jim, Jr. manned the forge and patiently hammered out tools while a large group sat in the kitchen area preparing food without any of the modern comforts of today.
Phil Weaver, 68, sat near the entrance, sporting bifocals and a cane, while armed with a collection of books about the time period. The member of the Marist College class of 1978 has been involved in living history since his undergraduate days.
“I’ve been doing this for almost 50 years,” Weaver said. “I’ve been to all sorts of different reenacting events and even though I’m getting old, it’s a hard habit to quit.”
“Some of the living historians are retired teachers, a couple of them used to work at IBM, and for some of them, this is just what they do for a living,” Soedler said. “The great thing is that even though they come from different backgrounds, it doesn’t matter here because they can all unite under this cause.”
While many people know about the Battle of Saratoga and George Washington’s temporary residence in Newburgh, there are several Revolutionary War connections to this side of the Hudson River. The living historians are eager to share some of these lesser-known stories with anyone willing to lend an ear.
“What a lot of people don’t know is that the British burned Kingston because Kingston was the capital of New York,” Soedler said. “For a short time, Poughkeepsie was actually the capital and Fishkill also was for an even shorter amount of time because the provincial congress met there in late 1776.”
In addition to being the site of a few short-lived state capitals, Dutchess County was also the terminus of an important late 18th-century highway.
“What we know as (state) route 82 and Beekman Road was known as the Revolutionary Highway,” Soedler said. “The route went from New England, down through here, to the Hudson River. Anybody who was traveling from Boston traveled through here. It’s documented that Washington came through here and most likely John Adams and John Hancock when they went to Philadelphia for the Continental Congress.”
The spectators that did turn up despite the less-than-ideal weather (temperature in the 50s and a continuous threat of rain) walked away with a new sense of perspective about Dutchess County’s revolutionary past.
“It’s a labor of love,” Fair said. “A lot of what we do is the stuff that doesn’t make it into the history textbooks. It’s not the boring black-and-white stuff that you see at school. You can see it, touch it, and smell it. The younger generation learns from it. And for me, that’s the biggest satisfaction.”
