To enter her home, you are immediately greeted
with an instant smile, animated gestures and strong
embracing arms. “Sit down…sit. Do you want a cup
of coffee?” She had a hardscrabble childhood—
growing up without a mother who died giving birth to
a fifth child, working long hours in her father’s gro-
cery store, wanting more than an eighth grade educa-
tion, sewing blouses for a dollar a day at a local fac-
tory. Yet nothing, nothing has daunted her indomita-
ble spirit.
At ninety-six, Angeline Polverelli Bassotti ex-
cites a listener with stories
about being a daughter of
a musician who immigrat-
ed to America, about a
Catholic education in the
1920s and 30s at St. Pat-
rick’s School, and about
taunts endured because of
her Italian heritage.
Known as Angie, she is
the last sibling who re-
calls how her father
“didn’t care” about life
after his wife Margaret
Morell (1899-1924) died.
Remembering an image of “a white casket,” Angie
said, “I started to scream. I knew it was something.”
The family separated: Angie’s sister Helen lived
with an aunt in Albany, baby Michael was raised by
relatives in Schenectady, James and Jane (Jenny) as
the oldest stayed with their father, and Angie lived for
a while with her grandmother in Ravena. “For years, I
didn’t know I even had a brother. Father didn’t ex-
plain it.” Angie’s father Luciano (1886-1954) ran away
from a seminary in Italy and paid for passage to
America by playing his trumpet in the ship’s band.
After he had settled in Ravena and saved money, he
married Margaret on January 1, 1915, in St. Patrick’s
Church. The family lived in a three-story brick build-
ing on the corner of Main Street and N. Clement Ave-
nue. “Father had a big store
next to St. Patrick’s…
grocery store on the bottom
and on the side a place for
his band,” Angie recalls. He
taught his children to play
musical instruments, and
Angie played “trumpet for
only one year.”
During a lesson, An-
gie’s father “pinched” her
finger for sounding a
wrong note, and she said,
“I quit!” And much to her
surprise, he responded,
“Okay.” Angie admits, “The
notes were getting harder.”
She speaks fondly today about the years her father
taught music at Coeymans High School and the Luci-
ano Polverelli Music Scholarship Fund awarded each
year to a RCS student. In Angie’s childhood home the kitchen had “an
icebox, a wood and coal stove, pots and pans in the
kitchen,” where Sunday meals of “macaroni and meat-
balls” were served. From the grocery store she would
walk up to three bedrooms: her father’s, Jimmy’s and
hers shared with Jenny. Some objects she explains
were not to be touched “like the fancy crystal bowls
on the chifforobe,” gifts Angie’s father had given her
mother. As a young child, Angie remembers opening
a dresser drawer with “lots of gold jewelry…I tried
on some pieces…quickly closed it when my sister was
coming up the stairs.” After her mother had died, An-
gie says that “aunts and uncles took everything, but
people in the village helped the family.”
Life for Angie as a child was “work...no play
time…scrubbing floors.” The grocery store became
(Continued on page 3)
RAVENA COEYMANS HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
Spring 2016 Vol. 14 No. 1
The Hitching Post
A Veritable Storyteller: Angeline Polverelli Bassotti
Angie and her father
PRESIDENT’S LETTER
Friends,
I am pleased to announce the Board of Trustees is in the process of pri-oritizing ways to improve the organization. At a January retreat, we dis-cussed revising the mission statement and framing a vision statement. Our new mission is to recall the past by preserving, sharing and educating. The vision statement reads: As custodians of the past, the Ravena Coeymans Histori-cal Society preserves the rich history and diverse culture of our community. We educate through exhibits, programs and outreach.
In February, we publicized a historical society scholarship open to all eleventh grade students living in the Town of Coeymans. The RCS High School Guidance Center, RCS Community Library, village and town munic-ipalities disseminated information about its criteria on their websites as we did on ours.
In this newsletter we are introducing a series of articles which celebrate and illuminate the lives and stories of women from diverse backgrounds in the Town of Coeymans. This issue features interviews of Angeline Polverelli Bassotti from Ravena, Zelda Jones Foy from the hamlet of Coeymans, and Pearl Schoonmaker Collins from Coeymans Hollow These women recall the past and share experiences that give us vivid understanding about life in our community.
Best wishes, Ralph Biance
P a g e 2
RAVENA COEYMANS
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
2015 - 2016
Officers/Trustees
President
Ralph Biance 2017
V. President
David Ross 2018
Treasurer
Marie Sturges 2018
Recording Secretary
Linda Peterman 2017
Curator/Historian
Joseph Boehlke 2018
Trustees
John Bonafide 2016
Nancy Bruno 2016
Suzanne Celella 2016
Paul Lawler 2017
Dennis Whalen 2016
Roger Wilber 2018
M u s e u m
H o u r s
The Historical Society Museum is
open every Thursday (except holi-
days) from 1 - 3 p.m.
For an appointment, call
365--6567 or 756-6536.
Visit us at
coeymanshistory.org
William Meyer, Webmaster
The Hitching Post
Marie Sturges, Editor
Editorial Staff
Mary Farinelli
Roger Wilber
THE CURATOR’S CORNER Joseph Boehlke
On December 13, 2015, approximately 100 people attended our annual Open
House to view a new exhibit, “Highlights of the Blaisdell Collection.” On display
were family photos, quilts, clothing and personal items. We were pleased to have
had some members of the Blaisdell family attend, who over the years have made
generous donations to the society. We appreciate their thoughtfulness and willing-
ness to share family history.
L to R: Linda Blaisdell Roosa, Rev. Edgar Roosa, Betsy Slingerland Blaisdell, John Blaisdell
P a g e 3
the family’s lifeline. Angie recounts how her “father
took orders for workers on a railroad being built in
Selkirk.” At age ten, she helped her father “pack up
the truck for deliveries. In an Italian family you have
to work. Now I sit around.”
Except for trips to Albany and Schenectady, An-
gie stayed in Ravena and “went to Grandmother Mor-
rell’s for holidays.” Christmas presents were meager,
yet practical. Angie recalls getting “coal in stocking,
an orange, tablets for school…no candy, no toys. We
played with other kids who had toys. No birthday par-
ties, just a couple of dollars. We were lucky to get
food on the table.”
Angie’s neighborhood, east of the railroad bridge,
was known as “the lane,” a microcosm where immi-
grants and their children survived indignities. “Italians
couldn’t pass the railroad bridge [Main Street]. Boys
[beyond the bridge] were throwing stones, calling us
guineas,” recounts Angie. She describes an incident in
which boys in her neighborhood would ask girls, “Did
you pass the bridge? Did you get your penny candy?
Follow us!” Boys were ready to fight boys beyond the
bridge. And after the fight, the “Italian boys got called
to the office [St. Patrick’s School].” Girls knew there
was trouble when the priest went room-to-room to in-
quire who the fighters were. The boys told the girls
later what the priest warned: “If you do that again,
your parents will be called.” Angie says, “We knew
we would be in hot water because parents always fa-
vored priests.”
Even in grammar school, the children feared and
chafed under the strict rules of nuns. “I sat in the front
seat and saw everything,” Angie says. She relates an
incident when a boy in her class was told to stay after
school. “I ain’t staying
after school. You ain’t
keeping me,” he said,
jumping out a window.
When the boy’s mother
came to school the next
day, Angie describes
how “she came into the
classroom, yanked him
out of his seat and beat
him in front of the class.
Italians favored nuns…
worshipped priests and
nuns.” Among boys
and girls, a code of con-
duct dictated behavior.
”Kids became angry with those who were bad in
school and would beat them up,” explains Angie.
The only subject in school Angie enjoyed was
“arithmetic, long division...my father showed me how
to do it.” When asked about a favorite teacher, Angie
admits she had none. “They were mean nuns,” Angie
recalls, relating a second grade experience when she
asked permission to use the bathroom. “When the nun
said no, I peed on the floor…went to the office and the
priest talked to me. I had to stay after school until
6:00.” Yet Angie also mentions fun moments at
school, “being with friends and [at] recess playing
jacks.”
Angie acknowledges outside the classroom “nuns
were nice,” asking girls to stay after school to “peel
potatoes and clean the convent while boys worked
outside. You couldn’t say no. We did not refuse.” The
nuns “treated them well and gave them supper.”
As a child Angie dreamed of becoming a nurse.
After her Grandmother Morrell had a leg amputated,
nobody wanted to take care of her. Angie explains, “I
watched a nurse wrap her leg, ‘the stump,’ and learned
how to take care of it. I did this for a couple of years.
My dad did not speak to me for a year.” Angie under-
stands the reason for his silence: “I was needed to
work to help support the family.” Having completed
eighth grade, Angie “wanted to go to high school but
didn’t get the chance.”
Teenage years brought chores, more work and
fiscal austerity. She cleaned the house, worked in the
grocery store, and eventually was hired in a blouse
factory. To be hired in a blouse factory, Angie, along
with her girlfriends, took sewing lessons in Coxsackie,
and “to save money had an apple for lunch.” Angie
laughs about the time her brother Jimmy drove her
friends to the sewing center and then forgot to pick
them up: “We hitchhiked up 9W to Ravena." After
passing the sewing test, Angie was hired at a blouse
factory located in the Masonic Temple on Main Street
in Ravena.
At seventeen, she worked at a drugstore the Eh-
renbergs owned, helping Edith, the owner’s wife,
clean from 5:00 to 9:00 a.m. Treating Angie like a
daughter, she taught her how to cook, set a table and
make beds. “I was looking for money…had to make
it. Your own family didn’t give it.”
Rules for teen dating were strict. Angie retells
how girls from “the lane” would meet boyfriends un-
der the viaduct: “We sneaked dates. When we heard
the train whistle, we would go back home.” A popular
dating place was the movie theater located on Van
(Continued from page 1)
(Continued on page 4)
Buren Avenue where teens were “escorted to their
seats.” Angie’s father gave advice to his daughters
when they went out on dates: “Keep both feet in one
shoe.” After John Bassotti had asked permission to
date Angie, her father called him “a gentleman.” How-
ever, John could not walk her home. “My father
would patrol in his truck where we were,” Angie says.
After dating a year, nineteen-year-old Angie
married John Bassotti on October 1, 1939, in St. Pat-
rick’s Church. “We honeymooned in New York City.
My husband took
me to a show—
burlesque! Women
all naked! Then we
heard Frank Sinatra
who was just start-
ing out. We had
good seats, could
see everything, even
all the musicians,”
Angie reminisces.
Just like her father,
John found joy in
music. During the
week he worked on
the railroad, and on
weekends played
the guitar at various
venues.
Married for fifty-five years, Angie offers her per-
spective for a successful marriage: “Listen to your hus-
band. Don’t add more to problems. Figure it out.” And
to her daughters she imparts these values: “To be
good, to treat your mate with respect and help others.”
During her adult life, Angie has continued to
maintain Italian traditions—going to church, frying
pizzelles and preparing elaborate holiday meals. “As I
got older, I had them [holidays] catered,” Angie ad-
mits. She still maintains and takes pride in her home
on Pulver Avenue, pointing to the woodwork she
stripped—“wanted it natural upstairs and down-
stairs”—ceramics she designed, blankets she cro-
cheted. No longer does she attend adult education
classes or volunteer as a school aide. Now Angie
spends time with family—three daughters, two grand-
children, a great-granddaughter, and several nieces and
nephews.
Born February 19, 1920, Angie has embraced
life’s ups and downs with resourcefulness and resili-
ence, describing herself as “happy-go-lucky” and of-
fering reasons for longevity: “Paycheck to parents,
saved, did without a lot of things, worked hard, looked
for a job...be caring to people, helping people out.”
A few years ago when her late sister Helen’s chil-
dren were cleaning their mother’s basement, they
found a wedding gown in a trunk, the one Margaret
Morrell wore when she married Luciano Polverelli. It
remains Angie’s only heirloom.
______________________________________ \
Interview February 19, 2016 ~ Marie Sturges
———————————————————
(Continued from page 3)
P a g e 4
Margaret Morrell Polverelli
Angie’s Mother
Angie at RCHS 2015 Annual Open House
P a g e 5
An elegant woman dressed in a formal black
velvet coat and hat sits in a pew alone during the
2015 Riverview Missionary Baptist Church Christ-
mas concert in Coeymans. A countenance of grace
and serenity reveals the spirit of a woman born June
21, 1930, whose faith for decades has sustained and
uplifted her. “I was brought up in that church since
when I was a little girl,” recalls Zelda Beatrice Jones
Foy who describes her baptismal in the “Hudson Riv-
er, along with three men, one named ‘Horseshoe.’ I
loved church. I have been there all my life. I grew up
in the church and sang in the choir until I left.” Her
husband The Reverend Pleasant J. Foy Sr. became
pastor of the Morning Star Missionary Baptist
Church on Quail
Street in Albany,
where she was known
as First Lady.
Sitting at a table
in her home, Zelda
begins to scan photo-
graphs, “That’s me!”
pointing to herself and
Pearl Brewer Boxley
in a church choir. And
then a picture of her
father, “He was a
dresser, too. I called
him chief—always
wanted to look good.”
She reminisces about a father who came from Hali-
fax, Virginia, telling how the “brick-yard brought
him here.” Yet her mood changes when she relates
how he “worked in the brickyards until he got sick.
He lingered for a while but had to quit. Died in his
early 50s.”
Looking at her mother’s memorial brochure,
Zelda explains how her mother LuLu Westmorland
Scott Jones came to Coeymans from Washington,
D.C., “worked for Suderley” and “became a secre-
tary at Riverview.” As she finds childhood pictures
of her two younger brothers, Samuel “Sonny” and
John Frank, Zelda recounts how the oldest sister
died young and her “mother sent Bessie, the young-
er sister, to live with her brother” in Danville, Vir-
ginia, where she “went to school, graduated down
there and stayed.” Lulu’s brother wanted one of the
girls to live with him, and Zelda remembers, “I was
crying when Bessie left and wrote letters to her.”
Zelda Foy, now eighty-five, recalls her com-
munity known as the Bottom, “We were in the first
house in the Bottom. Path in the Bottom went up a
hill.” Showing photographs of each parent standing
in front of a section of the area, she gives specific
directions about the Bottom’s location and the fami-
lies: “Grill, red building: [Adamo’s] when you go
down a hill [Rte. 144] and alongside it a little path,
and up on the hill black people lived. Houses up
there. Wilsons lived there and Leatrice Ray, one of
my friends, and the Waltons, Stevens...lots of little
children around. Gladys Martin lived next door…had
daughter my age and twin boys. I remember them—
(Continued on page 6)
A Woman of Faith: Zelda Jones Foy
Zelda’s father Zelda’s mother
John Frank Jones Samuel “Sonny” Jones
set of twins. I loved them babies.”
“I guess it was old,” the childhood house she
starts to describe: “We had running water, no bath-
room inside. We had pots [chamber pots] to sit on and
we’d get up in the morning to empty it in the creek. It
was a house with a big kitchen, running water inside,
large living room downstairs and upstairs three big
bedrooms. My sister and I were in one and brothers in
another.”
Zelda tells where her family shopped, “Nice gro-
cery stores…Mayone’s had one, further down
Frangella’s. We went to Ravena and Albany for
clothes.”
The conversation turns to education. Zelda dis-
cusses grammar school in Coeymans. She identifies
her favorite teacher, “Miss Reynolds… taught Eng-
lish, arithmetic, all subjects. She was nice.” And then
thinks of another teacher, Miss Stovall, also described
as nice. Zelda explains there was “no separation in
class of blacks and whites.” She does admit, however,
children did “things we weren’t supposed to do…
fights, yeah!” And she does remember nostalgically,
“I wanted to be a nurse. I don’t know why…take care
of people.”
After finishing grammar school, Zelda says,
“They shipped me to Ravena High School. I loved
English. It seems I could catch on to things in English
class. Arithmetic was my least favorite subject.” Zelda
remembers girls “showed they were smart but so did
the boys, nice boys.” She mentions one classmate in
particular, Ray Starr, “who was nice to everyone.”
She also points out, “We did not have many colored
boys [in class]...didn’t come to school.” Then she
comments about sports, “Didn’t like to play basket-
ball. Girls were too rough.” Holding two fingers together, Zelda discusses
the relationship with her mother, “I was like that…
right by her side. I watched her cook, make home-
made bread. Everything she did, I was watching. It’s
how I learned.” Zelda then quickly lists her assigned
chores: “Make up my bed. Me and my sister would do
the dishes, taking turns. One night I did them, the next
she did.”
Recalling her first job, Zelda says, “At fifteen,
I worked in Albany Medical Center (supply room).
Took the bus. It came to Coeymans, ran all day
long, 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 2 p.m....Mountain View Bus
Line from Coxsackie.” As she traces her work ex-
perience, Zelda describes her job after high school,
“Working at Montgomery Ward filling orders. For
twenty-five years I worked at the Thruway Authori-
ty as a clerk.”
Continuing to look through old photographs
of family members, Zelda begins to talk about her
teenage friends: “Nothing but girls!” And then with
a hearty laugh, she raises her arm to summon the
name of her first date—“Howard Dickson! We
went to movies in Ravena near the park. Walked
over and walked back.” But her first love was
Pleasant J. Foy.
Zelda at fifteen
Zelda and Pleasant at eighteen
P a g e 6
Not being able to find her wedding photo, she does
find one of Pleasant and her when they were eighteen.
Zelda tells how Pleasant moved to Coeymans from
Halifax, Virginia, and then found work in the Coey-
mans brickyards. After their courtship, they “got mar-
ried in my sister-in-law’s home in Albany [September
23, 1949]. Rev. Sutton from this church [pointing to
Riverview Church] was the pastor. It was nice.”
Then Zelda finds a picture of her two children
when they were young—Pleasant Jr. and Wanda—
and begins to discuss at great length the one value she
demanded of them: “To continue school. Both went
to college. I wanted them to continue their education
and they did what I said. Junior went to Seton Hall on
a basketball scholar-
ship but you had to
have good grades to
get it. And Wanda
went to school in Vir-
ginia. She became a
teacher. I wanted
them to get all they
could get. I’m proud
of them.”
Reflecting on how
the world has changed
since she was young,
Zelda mentions various household objects: “We used
an ice box growing up. Glad to see the ice man to
make Kool-Aid! But I had a refrigerator when I was
married. We had no washing machine. My mother
used a board and I would rinse the clothes. She did
get a washing machine…clothes went through a
wringer. I enjoyed doing that kind of work.” But she
opines, “It’s not the way it used to be. Everyone is
walking the streets with a telephone up to their ears.
It’s too much!”
Zelda responds to comments about her elegant
attire: “I wanted to dress up when Sundays came. I
wanted to be dressed. I did not wear pants to church.
Amen! No pants to church—dresses, skirts. I didn’t
wear hats until I was thirty years old. Mrs. Sutton
wore them…struck with—that looks nice.” An invet-
erate hat collector, Zelda asserts, “I love my hats. I
won’t go to church without one—red, pink, blue, yel-
low.” She then relates a bitter-sweet event about
dressing well: “When my husband was dying, he told
me to get a coat off lay-a-way, to get to the store. I
went flying. I got my fur coat. He didn’t get to come
home.” Rev. Foy Sr. passed away February 25, 1999,
ending a marriage of forty-nine years, a marriage
of faith and respect. With resoluteness Zelda Jones
Foy asserts, “I thank God for my longevity. I’ve
been sick. I’m looking for a home when I die, a
better place than here.”
\
__________________________________________
Interview February 19, 2016 ~ Marie Sturges
——————————————————–
Wanda and Pleasant Foy Jr.
P a g e 7
Ravena High School Class of 1948
Riverview Missionary Baptist Church
Tri-Centennial Belles Chapter
1973
Zelda ~ back row, second from left
The Farm Girl
Pearl Collins was meeting me at the historical
society museum that day. She had written in a note-
book many details of her life. I eagerly began to read
through the first pages. “Who Am I?” she wrote. “I
was born to Earle Theodore Schoonmaker and Cathe-
rine M. Connell Schoonmaker on May 20, 1939.
They were expecting a boy. They had no name for a
girl.” She said eventually her mother named her Pearl
Anne. Her parents told her she was born in the hospi-
tal at “quitting time,” as they could hear a loud whis-
tle from a nearby building at day’s end. Pearl said her
sister, Ruth, had been born twelve years earlier
(1927) at home (a common practice at that time), and
her brother, Andrew, was born in the hospital in
1940.
As Pearl and I continued talking, I noticed her
curly, snow-white hair and her blue eyes—a gentle
lady with a soft-spoken voice. She told me about her
parents and grandparents: “My dad’s father was
Frank Schoonmaker, who came down from
Mechanicville to work on the Alcove Dam. He met
and married Jeanette
Embocher who came
from Indian Fields.”
Their first home was
in Feura Bush. Pearl’s
father told her about
getting a “government job” at Voorheesville
Depot, which was in
Guilderland Center.
Her mom sold Ra-
leigh products to sup-
plement the family
income. Pearl attend-
ed school in a small
building in back of the
Voorheesville houses. Her teachers were “Miss Joc-
lyn (first grade) and Miss Wright (second grade)” and
she told me she “loved her teachers.”
And then her parents bought a farm on Wem-
ple Road in the Town of Bethlehem. Pearl was excit-
ed to be moving to a new place. Farming came easily
to Pearl’s dad; however, her “mom was a city girl,”
but an innovative lady who learned fast. She would
go berrying (berry picking) with high boots and a
pistol (for the snakes she might meet). “When my
brother and I got older, we’d go do the berrying. I’d
get mad at him because he’d eat the berries. ‘How’s
Mom going to make jam?’ I’d say.”
Pearl recounted why she was chosen to pick
fruit trees: “Dad said I could climb any of the apple
trees because those limbs would hold me. I probably
fell out of most of the apple trees. I loved to climb. I
was what they called a tom boy. I’d rather talk with
the boys. They had something to say. Girls usually
talked about the boys and gossiped about everyone.”
After moving to the farm, Pearl remembers
going to Glenmont School and playing with the
boys. Sometimes she would even get knocked over.
“Rover, Rover and Kick the Can were two of her fa-
vorite games,” she said.
Summer on the farm was a joyful time for
Pearl and her brother, Andy. She described a “big,
galvanized tub” they had. “We kids would get
bathed, then Mom, then Dad (outdoors). When we
got older, we had a bathtub and a shower inside.”
And she described her chores: “I helped Mom a lot. I
ironed, baked pies and brownies and helped Mom
can and wash clothes.
When Grandma was in
the hospital, my mom
was at the hospital all the
time, so I cooked for
Dad. It was mostly fried
potatoes and fried eggs.
Dad always said, ‘Oh,
this is so good!’” Pearl
said her “grandmother
died… never came out of
the hospital.” On that day
Pearl became a cook.
Pearl recounted
another “illness that made
a memory”: “My brother,
Andy, got hepatitis. The
doctor came to the house and gave us all shots, and
we were all quarantined for a week. My big sister
and her husband came down because it was Christ-
mas. They passed the gifts through the front door.
Then they went around back to my brother’s room to
watch him (through the window) open his gifts. It
never made him sterile. He recovered and we were
P a g e 8
Family and Farm: Pearl Schoonmaker Collins
Pearl’s high school graduation
picture
P a g e 9
all just fine.”
It is apparent life on the farm where she lived
with her family was one of the happiest times in
Pearl’s life. In a notebook she sketched a diagram of
the farm’s many buildings and gardens. She labeled
various buildings—goat shed, chicken house, pig shed,
wood shed, outhouse, chicken coop, garage, main
house with plants all around. Then she described the
orchards: “There were three different pear trees, plum
trees, cherry trees and all kinds of apple trees. There
were currant bushes planted in between trees on the
upper level. There were black caps along the fence and
grape arbors and a large patch of thimble berries un-
derneath. We had a large garden and a hilltop planted
with potatoes, and one year, we planted a field of tur-
nips. We staked the goats out and moved them around
for best eating.”
A Farm of Her Own
On August 12, 1961, Pearl Collins married Al-
bert Floyd (Jiggy) Collins whose parents were Clar-
ence T. and Mary Winchell Collins. Pearl was to live
with the Collins family and another couple, Mr. and
Mrs. Hall, who rented another part of the house. Fami-ly friends secretly planned a “horning” for the newly-
weds. At their homecoming to the Collins farm on Rte.
143, a crowd of twenty or more rushed into the house,
banging on pots and pans. They brought food, presents
and fun to the newlyweds who were celebrating their
special day in a grand old house. Pearl and Jiggy
would live in this large house for the rest of their
lives.
Records show Pearl and Jiggy’s house was
built by Isaac D. Ver Planck (1759-1836), son of
David Ver Planck, who married Ariaantje Coey-
mans. Isaac built a grist mill, a saw mill and card-
ing and cloth dressing mills in Aquetuck. He and
his wife Helena had nine children—seven girls
and two boys. In 1803, Isaac decided to build for
the family a large house with twenty-two rooms,
five fireplaces and two staircases. According to the
writings of Robert Blaisdell, it was “the most hand-
some house in Aquetuck, having some of the best
creek-bottom land of the neighborhood…the cream
of the Coeymans patent.” It has been rumored the
house was built with some slave labor. The last Ver
Planck to live in this house was Mrs. Annie Guth-
rie, a descendant of Isaac. Records indicate Anne
Guthrie sold the house to Clarence Collins, Jiggy’s
father, in 1928.
Pearl settled in with her new family: Jiggy, his
parents (“Mom C and Dad C”) and Bucky, Jiggy’s
brother, who visited often. Mr. and Mrs. Hall de-
cided to live elsewhere. Mom C did all the cook-
ing. One day Dad C asked Pearl if she would like
to cook a meal. She would and she did. Dad C said,
“Look! Pearl can cook too!” After that, she and
Mom C took turns cooking meals.
This was a farm, a real farm, with a Dutch
barn built in 1812. And there were other buildings
for farm animals and places for vegetable gardens.
Earle, Pearl’s father, brought produce from his gar-
dens to a market on Hudson Avenue in Albany and
to another in Menands. Now Clarence was doing
the same, bringing chickens and eggs to house-
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wives in “the lane” [Main Street, Ravena]. Some
wives ordered live chickens while others just bought
eggs.
“The spring was the hardest,” Pearl said. She
worked with the plantings, helped with birthings,
watered the crops, drove a tractor, unloaded bales of
hay and delivered milk. I asked Pearl if she ever re-
gretted having this hard-working life. Her answer:
“No, I was with my husband. Besides, this is life.
And my life is taking care of my family.”
Mom C, Dad C, and Jiggy (d. July 8, 2006)
have passed away. The wallpaper that covered all the
walls has been removed. The wainscoting on the
kitchen ceiling was torn down, revealing the original
large beams. Arrow heads and beaded corn can no
longer be found at the creek’s edge.
During their marriage Pearl and Jiggy had a
daughter, Catherine (b.1963) and a son, Albert Jr.
(b.1966), a helpmate to his father. They, along with
some of their children, continue to live on the farm,
and Pearl’s other grandchildren visit often.
In another conversation Pearl told me about “a
vault in the woods across the road from the house.
There is an inscription on a marble slate.” At its foot
are two markers: Father and Mother. Robert
Blaisdell states: “Between these is a curious notched
marble slab inscribed: This vault created by Abra-
ham Ver Planck in memory of my father and mother
1843 I.D.V.P. It is believed that Abraham built the
door of the vault on the east side of the woods near
the house.” Pearl commented, “The son, Abraham,
pays homage to his father, Isaac.” As we honor our
parents, so our children will honor us. On this farm,
Pearl honors her parents who lived on the little farm
of her childhood.
Vault’s date - 1843
Vault Abraham Ver Planck built
for his parents
_____________________________________________
Interviews February and March 2016 ~ Mary Farinelli ___________________________________________________________________________________________
The Collins Farm
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2016 MEMBER SPONSORS
BENEFACTORS ($250+) Joe & Gail Boehlke John & Anna Marie Bonafide Bob & Ann Hallock Harry & Marie Sturges Dennis & Alice Whalen
PATRONS ($100+) Lois Acquino William Bailey & Penny Gould* Ralph Biance Clesson & Jean Bush Mary McCabe* Robert & Ruth McCabe Catherine & Tony Ricciardi
INDIVIDUAL LIFETIME [New] ($100) Richard A. Fuhrrman
SUSTAINING/FAMILY ($50 annually)
Lynn Van derzee Christie* Raymond & Eileen Collins Charles F. Coons Patricia and James Feuerbach Robert & Laraine Misuraca Patricia Joralemon-Selko Gordon & Linda Stanton
SUPPORTING/INDIVIDUAL ($25 annually) John & Rita Ablett William W. Beardsley
Karol Beck Rudy & Marcia Blakesley Ronald Decker Mary Farinelli Roni Fori Greene County Historical Society Henry Hamilton John & Susan Leath Margaret Matheny William & Judith McMillen William R. Meyer George & Patricia Orsino* Danielle Parks Thomas & Judith Plummer Ronald A. Rauche* David & Starr Ross Joseph Rotello Richard Touchette Roger & Cyndy Wilber
* Additional contributions
GENERAL MEMBERSHIP BUSINESS SPONSORS
Member $10 annually Supporter $50 annually Family $15 annually Sustaining $100+ annually Supporting/Individual $25 annually Patron $250+ Supporting/Family $50 annually Benefactor $1000+ Patron $100+ Benefactor $250+ Individual Life $100 (65 or older) Student $5 annually (25 and under)
The Society welcomes new members, businesses and contributions. Checks are payable to The Ravena Coeymans Historical Society c/o Treasurer
P.O. Box 324, Ravena, NY 12143
2016 BUSINESS SPONSORS BENEFACTORS ($1000+) Village of Ravena
PATRONS ($250+) Babcock Funeral Home Callanan Industries, Inc. Selkirk Community Fund State Telephone Company
SUSTAINING ($100+ annually) C.A. Albright & Sons LLC Bullock Utilities Collins & Son, Inc. Crossroads Ford National Bank of Coxsackie Stanton Farms LLC TCI of NY, LLC Robert P .Van Etten Excavating, Inc.
BUSINESS SUPPORTER ($50 annually) John T. Biscone, Esq. Boomer’s Garage Central Hudson Mueller’s Automotive LLC* Persico Oil Company Ravena Shop ’n Save
Note: All members/sponsors are cited on the website as of 3/25/2016.
____________________
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The Hitching Post
Ravena Coeymans Historical Society P. O. Box 324 Ravena, New York 12143
coeymanshistory.org
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Published semi-annually by The Ravena Coeymans Historical Society
2016 Spring Programs/Annual Summer Picnic
April 10, 2016 ~ 2:00 PM
Sharing the History of Powell and Minnock Brick Company
Ten Eyck Powell will discuss the development Powell and Minnock
Brick Company in Coeymans.
May 15, 2016 ~ 2:00 PM
Examining the Sanborn Maps
Richard Fuhrman will explain what the Sanborn maps reveal about
life in the early 1900s.
August 6, 2016 ~ Noon to 4:00
Annual Summer Picnic
Sylvia and Paul Lawler to host the picnic at the Ariaantje Coeymans
Stone House in Coeymans, New York