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Image provided by: Guilderland Public Library
The AltumjontF^^^^^e OUR CENTENNIAL YEAR Serving the Towns c Guttderland, New Scotland, Bethlehem, Berne, JCn« Including Altamont, VoofheesvUe, Westmere, Guttdertand Center, SWngerkm AUC10198J STATE US Number 2 Thursday, August 4, 19& laerville ig Areas 25 Cents Berne Tour: Drive Yourself Back Through History By CAROL DuBRIN Last week grandfather, a friend and I decided to take the Berne historic drive-it-yourseif tour. It was a lovely trip. We found lots of roads we didn't even know existed and we got a chance to review a bit of history in this small mountain town. For someone who has lived in the area almost all her life I am woefully ignorant of the mountain roads and their inter-relationships. We did some backtracking and aimless wandering but using our trusty guide pamphlet available at the Berne Town Hall and Library (same building) we muddled through. We found the historic sites and had fun reconstructing the past in our minds eye. This would be. a particularly lovely trip to take in the fall when brilliant foliage paints the Helder- bergs for one month with riotous color. Some of the roads become impassable in a snowy winter. Charles Garry of the Berne Conservation Council set up the little blue guide. Mr. Garry said he used Tom COnklin's inventory booklet of historic places in the town as his own guide in setting up the tour. We started our drive at the Town Hall and Library where the gracious and helpful Mrs. Freida Saddlemire sold me the paperbook book, \Our Heritage,\ a series of essays by Berne natives on the history and business of the town. It was published % the TowiPof Berne Bicentennial Commission. The foreward and a number of chapters are written by Mrs. Euretha Wolford Stapleton, histor- ian of the town. This is a great help in recreating the history of «what you see on the drive. It also has a map which helps you follow the trail. Our only problem was that some of the roads either have lost their signs or they are non-existent. This just adds an element of surprise and suspense to the tour. Just a bit of historical back- ground. The area of Berne was originally part of the Van Rensse- laerwyck patroonship lands grant- ed to Kilian Van Rensselaer by the Dutch in 1629. When the English wrested control of what was to become New York State in 1664, they did not change these patroon relationships. They also found the manor-tenant system agreeable and profitable. \It was 1750 when a small band of settlers trudged along an old Indian trail through the Helder- bergs — Weidman, Ball, Bassler, Deitz, Hochstrasser, Kriieskern, Jacob Weidirian was leader of tge group. His family and the Basslers had come from Switzerland, and this was their new \Bern.\ (The \e\^jas added later). The two creeks, the Fox(enkill) and the Switzkill proved to be the area's most valuable assets as the land was poor for farming. Along their banks, many water-powered mills and factories grew.„T)ie other still enduring business was that of quarrying stone and it is still represented in the area by the Heldeberg Bluestone and Marble firm. Stephen Van Rensselaer III, \the Good Patroon,\ granted land 'AU Systems Go 9 For 7-Day Fair By FRED HART The pace has stepped up and all systems seem to be go for a really big seven-day Altamont Fair. This Set Sail For Fair Pre-Sale The Altamont Fair once again launches its pre-sale ticket cam- paign. Each year the Altamont Fair has offered reduced rates to those who purchase their fair tickets in advance. There is a dollar saving to each fairgoer who buys tickets in advance of the fair. The regular price to the fair is $3. The advance sale ticket is $2, a 33 percent saving to the early purchaser. There is no advance sale of children's tickets. This year a new advance sale ticket has been added. The Altamont Fair is selling advance sale ride tickets for the Reithoffer Shows Midway. An advance pur- chase of $5 for ride tickets will get you a value of $8.40 worth of ride tickets, a saving of $3.40 for just a $5 investment/ These tickets will all be en sale through Saturday, Aug. 13 until 5 p.m. at all Albany Public Market stores in the area. They can also be purchased at the Altamont Fair office on the fairgrounds. Those interested in either type of advance sale ticket may call 861-6671 or stop at the nearest Albany Public Market. Advance sale tickets are also available at The Altamont Enter- prise office through 5 p.m, Friday, Aug. 12 only. year's fair begins Monday, Aug. 15. The new horse ring and a huge concrete pad to dance on at the new Entertainment Center are com- pleted. Also finished, is the new floor to the Firemen's Museum. The tricentennial exhibit is progressing fine, as are the changes in the 1890 Carriage House. The Farm Museum has had all helpers and workers out for over a week now. They have been busy evenings and weekends, cleaning rugs, building and rearranging. All last minute exhibit changes are being made. The gun club has finished refur- bishing many of its buildings. In particular, they put a new floor in the refreshment stand. They also have made more arrangements which will improve their exhibit this year. There will be more fish to view — the kind we dream about, though, not the kind most of us catch. Both warmwater fish and trout will be on exhibit. Big ones! The Hayes House has a new roof over part of the enchanting exhibit which will unfold to its viewers. This exhibit changes some each year and is, perhaps, one of the most popular of all the 15 to 20 free musuems which are available for you to view this year on your visit to the Altamont Fair. Stalls for the draft horse and draft mule show have all been completed. Many feverish hours were turned in on that project also. All in all, it will be a great show for you this'year when you attend the Altamont Fair, Aug. 15 through 21. rights free to Jacob Weidman who built a mill on Fox Creek. This in turn drew many other settlers who rented their land rights. The first seven years were free to allow them to establish themselves. The \Good Patroon\ was a good businessman. It was at his death that a provision of his will started the \war\ that made Berne a capital and hot bed of resistance. Stephen III had been \good\ because he was lax in collecting his rents. His will, however, .required the payment of all back rents in full to his sons and heirs, Stephen IV in the West Manor (Albany County) and William in the East Manor (Rensselaer County). This accumulated debt became an unbearable burden to the frugal farmers. They banded together, used the anonymity of Calico Indian disguises and commenced the Anti-Rent Wars when their appeals for relief were ignored. t July„4J 1839 was the date of the njrst large .meeting, picked to coincide with Independence Day. Those farmers declared their \independence\ from the patroon and his deeds. Their trumpet of freedom was the tin horn and its sound resounded throughout the hills. Unfortunately those deeds were very legal even in the young United States* Van Rensselaer's brother- in-law, Alexander Hamilton him- self, had drawn them. Battles jujd riojgj contijitied iato the 1860s. I have written before how some of the martyrs of these skrimishes with the established government went west (to Ripon, Wise.) and created the Republican party. Its second presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln, went into office on one of their specific \planks\ that future lands should be individual-farmer-owned. The Homestead Act carrying out this campaign promise was made law Aliumom HmcrprKc St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Berne, site of 1845 anti-rent delegate meeting from 11 New York State counties under the chairmanship of Dr= Frederick Crounse, physician of Knowersville [now Alta- mont]. They met to petition the State Legislature for local relief from land rents. Another photo of this building may be viewed al- most daily on local TV station's \Tricentennial Moments.\ A few hundred feet down Route 443 from our Town Hall starting point is the red brick St. Paul's by Lincoln's signature at the height of the Civil War. This history in mind, come with us down the highways and byways Of Berne. (Continued on Page 20) Alumont EnurprlK The Bradt Hollow Schoolhouse, one of the original 21 one-room district schools that once formed a net- work of community grammar schools in the Town of Berne. For higher education, young people from the Hilltowns frequently boarded in Altamont to attend the former village union high school on Grand St.
