LOOKING BACK: 200 YEARS OF AMERICAN GROWTH

William Smith, the original model for our popular Uncle Sam icon, was alive and in attendance at the Town of Catskill's centennial celebration 100 years ago. He appeared resplendent in stars and stripes pant, waistcoat, and towering top hat. Smith had known the true Uncle Sam himself, the Catskill-based government meat inspector, Samuel Wilson, who stamped "U.S." onto shipments for West Point and points south during the fateful War of 1812. Smith was a local contractor who built many of the town's landmarks, including churches and the old high school that stood adjacent to where the Irving School now stands, until fire took it in the 1930s.

Catskill was one of the state's preeminent small cities in 1906, a time when the village saw the construction of a sparkling new library, courthouse, bank, firehouse and YMCA building.
In 1896, when the decade of celebration started, New York's William McKinley was President of the United States. When it came to a crescendo 11 years later, Teddy Roosevelt was on top. He was another great New Yorker popular for major reforms, and fighting corporate influence on government. The nation invaded the Dominican Republic and began curbing foreign immigration.

Locally, the same period was punctuated by growth pains. Many people born during the nation's early years were dying off. Fancy new homes were being built. An arsonist was on the loose in the rural stretches of the county. Suicides and murders were front-page news, including stories about a couple killed by two wandering brothers, a wife hammered by her husband, and riverboat people fighting to the death over lost bets. Train cars sometimes ran out of control, crushing a dozen or more people each year. Other accidents occurred regularly with new-fangled sawmill and farm machinery. Flooding took out both of Catskills' bridges. A Board of Supervisors' decision was reached to support the state in building roadways for horseless carriages, the first of which were making their way into town.

Catskill had a trolley, a dozen small grocers, three barbers, busy churches, bustling factories, several hotels and a dayliner service to New York City and Albany. The last remaining slave in town, Jane Johnson, passed away. Two steamers collided in the Hudson and sank. Nellie Bly, the famous muckraking journalist whose exploits served as the model for "Around The World in 80 Days," had retired locally, happily and lucratively married to the town's richest man.

The tenor of the times echo in the headlines from one 1903 edition of the Catskill Examiner: "Otis Griffin, of Halcott, plowed up a gold watch," "Hattie Borst, of Hunter, obtained a divorce," "Charles G. Coffin, of Catskill, broke leg but continued to work," and the truly memorable, "Harry Lee coughed up a four-inch lizard."

The last decade of Catskill's bicentennial may be seen similarly in the future with the completion of the new legislative building, the building of Wal-Mart's largest store in the Northeast, a changing demographic that saw older homes renovated, and a host of new galleries drawing fresh faces to the proud town's historically-intact Main Street.

We have moved ahead, we learn, by looking back and polishing what we've always had. Because what we've had has been as grand as our setting and as lyrical as our name.

Walking Tour: To take self-guided walking tour of Main Street Catskill, click here.

Lodging: To find a lodging facility, click here.

Dining: To find a dining facility, click here.