Hops, Fall is coming, Eaton & hops history!

 As they say.. everything old is new again...and that goes for the history of an area and its products. As I was getting ready to pick my hops plants I decided to blog on Hops....so here it is!

“In 1808 James D. Coolidge planted the first hops field in Madison County. By 1859 NY supplied 87 percent of hops grown in the U.S.”  

That is an unbelievable statement but it is true. Madison County grew hops and the crop was a bumper crop that made many of the farmers in the area, but it also destroyed some.

The Hop commodities market was actually moved to Waterville where hops were bought and sold with the fluctuating hops market.  Many an Eaton Farm grew hops and held hops to get the best value at market. They also welcomed the pickers in season because in town the money flowed from outside to in.

Many a farm put families up during the “season” and stories of fun and friendships made abound… a more simple time.  My own mother recalled taking the canal to Madison County where her family would pick hops.  She as a small child remembered hiding under her mother’s skirt on the trip.

The hop fields of Samuel Coolidge ran between Madison and Eaton near the Summit level of the Chenango Canal.  The field crops were called by some locals, as filled with “the Devil’s weed”… because of Hops addition to beer to make it bitter or to add flavor and aroma.

Hops would later disappear from the hills of Eaton and Madison County because of blight and because of white or blue powdery mold.  Another problem “Temperance” played a large part.

Another facet of hop production were the numerous attempts to patent labor saving devices.  A few out of Eaton and the area are pictured in the back of the book.

One was a “HOP-PICKER’S BOX” designed by Frederick A Fargo of Pine Woods, New York it was Patent No. 949,915 dated November 22, 1881. (Fargo Corners in Eaton today).  He states that: “My invention consist of a hop-picker’s measure or box having such construction that it may be easily taken apart for stowing away in small spaces and for transportation, and easily set up for use.”

Another interesting invention out of Morrisville is a Vine Trellis.  The Trellis was submitted by Andrew S. Hart and is Patent number 495,673, dated April 18, 1893. Hart says: “The object of this invention is to provide a trellis for training chiefly hop-vines, and which shall be permanently erect on the ground to afford ready access to the uppermost parts of the vines.”

The time of hops passed and became a time of cows and corn that have in recent time given back land to the cultivation of Hops in Eaton and in Madison County.  It is interesting to note that at Fargo Corners today you can see a new “hop field” located on today's  Mosher Farm.

Hops, Beer, Patents and History on the march in Eaton!

The new history book that is coming out for Memorial Day Monday is filled with new tidbits on history and leads to another book that I am working on describing the Patents that came form the area.  As they say.. everything old is new again...and that goes for the history of an area and its products.

“In 1808 James D. Coolidge planted the first hops field in Madison County. By 1859 NY supplied 87 percent of hops grown in the U.S.”  

That is an unbelievable statement but it is true. Madison County grew hops and the crop was a bumper crop that made many of the farmers in the area, but it also destroyed some.

The Hop commodities market was actually moved to Waterville where hops were bought and sold with the fluctuating hops market.  Many an Eaton Farm grew hops and held hops to get the best value at market. They also welcomed the pickers in season because in town the money flowed from outside to in.

Many a farm put families up during the “season” and stories of fun and friendships made abound… a more simple time.  My own mother recalled taking the canal to Madison County where her family would pick hops.  She as a small child remembered hiding under her mother’s skirt on the trip.

The hop fields of Samuel Coolidge ran between Madison and Eaton near the Summit level of the Chenango Canal.  The field crops were called by some locals, as filled with “the Devil’s weed”… because of Hops addition to beer to make it bitter or to add flavor and aroma.

Hops would later disappear from the hills of Eaton and Madison County because of blight and because of white or blue powdery mold.  Another problem “Temperance” played a large part.

Another facet of hop production were the numerous attempts to patent labor saving devices.  A few out of Eaton and the area are pictured in the back of the book.

One was a “HOP-PICKER’S BOX” designed by Frederick A Fargo of Pine Woods, New York it was Patent No. 949,915 dated November 22, 1881. (Fargo Corners in Eaton today).  He states that: “My invention consist of a hop-picker’s measure or box having such construction that it may be easily taken apart for stowing away in small spaces and for transportation, and easily set up for use.”

Another interesting invention out of Morrisville is a Vine Trellis.  The Trellis was submitted by Andrew S. Hart and is Patent number 495,673, dated April 18, 1893. Hart says: “The object of this invention is to provide a trellis for training chiefly hop-vines, and which shall be permanently erect on the ground to afford ready access to the uppermost parts of the vines.”

The time of hops passed and became a time of cows and corn that have in recent time given back land to the cultivation of Hops in Eaton and in Madison County.  It is interesting to note that at Fargo Corners today you can see a new “hop field” located on today's  Mosher Farm.

Beer, brewing, April 29th in history and a man who supported women's rights in the mid 1850"s.

What a week… more SNOW and cold… so, next to the wood fire I took some time to look back on history…and as usual I found some interesting reading.  It pertains to a little book we are putting out for our May, Memorial Day special... since it is the 220^th Anniversary of Eaton’s founding.  The date that I was interested in is coming up this week... April 29^th, 1792.  It stood out as born on this day in history in England was a lad named Matthew Vassar who became a beer mogul of the 1800’s. Yes BEER mogul!

A few years after his birth his family move to America to seek some religious freedom with entertained thoughts of starting a beer business… since both Matthew’s father James and his brother Thomas were English “brewers”.

The two bought some land on the Hudson near Wappinger’s Creek, but it wasn’t until Thomas returned from England with English barley that the family began to brew ale. 

As he grew Matthew did not want to be a tanner, the trade his father chose for him … so he ran away from home to make his own “fortune”.  After many jobs he became successful enough to move back to his family and start making beer with them.  The Vassar Brewery in Poughkeepsie became a large concern whose success was interrupted when fire destroyed the brewery and Matthew’s father was killed by fumes when inspecting the damage.

To make a long story short, after much trial and tribulation, Matthew became rich and began a climb that went from owning a huge beer business to incorporating the Poughkeepsie Savings Bank in 1831 in which he took a prominent lead, and the formation of the Poughkeepsie Whaling Company in 1832, of which he was a subscriber/shareholder, and a director and a trustee of the young city of Poughkeepsie.  He also ran to a brick making business and in 1842 took on the development of the Hudson River Railroad to get his beer to New York City when the Hudson froze over.

When a step-niece, Lydia Booth,  move from Virginia to New York to take the reins of a women’s Seminary school in Poughkeepsie… he helped support her and at that point became enlightened about the importance of education for females.

After a trip to England and noticing buildings donated with the donors names on them as monuments to them, he decided that a female educational institute would be the perfect thing to put is name to…it would be a lasting honor… So he did… he founded Vassar College… at that time for women.

Not only did he donate close to $500,000, in those days a vast sum, but became intimately involved it its construction and hired Maria Mitchell the astronomer as its first professor.  He toured Europe to learn about women’s education and even gave his house and art collection to the new college which, opened in 1865 to 353 young women.

When he decided to retire as head of the Board of Trustees for Vassar in 1868, and while delivering his farewell speech to the board, Vassar collapsed and died.  They placed him in a chair and after a short silence… one of the other men read the finish of his address as follows…

“And now, gentlemen, in closing these remarks, I would humbly and solemnly implore the Divine Goodness to continue his smiles and favor on your institution, and bestow upon all hearts connected therewith his love and blessings, having peculiarly protected us by his providence through all our college trials for three consecutive years, without a single death in our Board or serious illness or death of one of our pupils within its walls. Wishing you, gentlemen, a continuance of health and happiness, I bid you a cordial and final farewell, thanking you kindly for your official attentions and services, not expecting, from my advanced years and increasing infirmities, to meet with you officially again, and imploring the Divine Goodness to guide and direct you aright in all your counsels and social business relations.”

April 29^th, his birthday is still today celebrated as “Founder’s Day and the college  (now coed) is a major success.  Its main President, John Raymond who taught at Colgate, was married to Cornelia Morse of Eaton and the Morse family girls attended, taught at, and left money to this cause…more on this later…

PS (Maria Mitchell’s secretary and assistant was one of them.)  I love it when history leads you from one place to another close to home and old Eaton.