Monthly Archives: March 2024

CAVE COUNTRY SHORTS

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HULDAH ANN HOWE AND HENRY NORTHRUP WED IN CAVE

Another Marriage in Howe’s Cave—Howe’s Cave, in Schoharie Country, was recently the scene of a marriage ceremony.

On the 9th last, at 10 o’clock at night, Henry M. Northrup, of New York, and Huldah A. Howe, daughter of the proprietor of the cave, were joined in wedlock by Rev. Dr. Wells of Schoharie.

The cave was brilliantly illuminated. After the ceremony, there was a display of fireworks in the cave which was at once pleasing and grand.

This, we believe, is the second ceremony performed by Dr. Wells in Howe’s Cave. The first was determined upon the moment; the second had been previously arranged – hence the illumination, fireworks, and other “fixings.”—The Buffalo Daily News, Aug. 28, 1854

CONTRACTOR LEADS IN RESCUE OF HOWES CAVE WORKERS, TRAPPED BY FLOOD

Howes Cave, April 21—When the stream running from the subterranean lake in Howes Cave here rose suddenly, fourteen men engaged in laying out paths through the cavern were almost cut off from the exit through a temporary shaft late yesterday.

They were aid[ed] to safety by Roger Mallery, contractor in charge.

The men were at work in a passage but four feet high and seventy-five feet from the surface when the rising water threatened to bar their way out. Two of the party reached the shaft and informed Mallery of their fears that their comrades would not be able to get out.

Mallery, seizing a handline and descending through the swirling waters to the higher level where his men were at work, and one by one, they were guided to the shaft.

None was reported any worse for this experience.

Howes Cave, which was once one of the wonders of the eastern United States, and was visited annually by thousands of tourists, has been closed for more than a score of years.

An organization of capitalists was recently formed under the name Howe Caverns, Inc. to seek a new way to the cave about a mile north of the original entrance and to again invite the attention of tourists.

Two shifts of workers have been engaged for several weeks in sinking the main shaft to the cave on the farm of John Sagendorf and the work of restoring the paths through the cave is practically completed.

To facility the work, a temporary shaft was sunk a few hundred feet north of the original entrance. —The Schoharie Republican, April 28, 1928

THE ORCHESTRA STARTS AT 9

During the first two years of business for Howe Caverns, Inc., owners supplemented the $1.50 cave tours by opening the new, picturesque lodge overlooking the valley for ballroom dancing most Friday nights during the off-season. 50 cents for ladies, 75 cents for gentlemen.

The dances were likely meant to be a class affair, initiated by the Syracuse men who organized the caverns’ corporation, held lots of stock, and managed the day-to-day operations. 

The “opening dance at the lodge was Friday July 26, 1929, with respectable hours of from 9 p.m. to midnight. 

Ladies and gentlemen could dance to the music of Loren Cross and his orchestra, nnder the direction of Leo M. Snell, all of Syracuse. The director’s ballroom, said the caverns’ publicity, “is the finest private ballroom in the state.”

Of course, music at the cave, or rather in the cave, was nothing new.  Lester Howe was known for his occasional subterranean violin playing, and the Howes Cave Association hosted performances in the cave’s “Music Room.” —The Cobleskill Index, July 28, 1929

THE FORGOTTEN QUARRY IN COBLESKILL’S BACKYARD

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A ‘Farming with Dynamite’ Account of the Rogers Quarry

New research is proving the Rogers Quarry in Cobleskill to have been one of the largest among many during the 1890-1905 “stone boom.” It was also one of the shortest lived.

During New York’s building stone boom, Schoharie County ranked 12th in the state, supplying millions of tons of both precision-cut building stone, crushed stone (aggregate), and cement for the prominent engineering marvels of that period. The history of the more than 30 quarries operating during that period is documented in Farming With Dynamite: The Forgotten Stone Boom in Schoharie County, published by the author in October 2023.

There were eight quarries in the Town of Cobleskill alone, six within village limits. The largest was the Klondike Quarry, which employed nearly 500, and was located about three miles east of Cobleskill, just north of the Delaware and Hudson rail line. Then came the Reilly-Weiting Quarry, which employed about 200. It operated at what is today Cobleskill Stone Products just east of the village limits; the company still operates today.

Then came the Rogers Quarry.

New York City contractor John C. Rogers’s quarry company, said the Albany Evening Times on May 20, 1902, “is the leading industry of Cobleskill.”

According to the paper, the quarry had a workforce of 150 men, and the “payroll for the month is $5,000. . . employes are paid every two weeks.” Col. William McRae was the quarry superintendent; John Murray quarry boss; William Keating led stonecutters; and Edward Karker the laborers.

Like other quarries in the area, recent Italian and Polish immigrants made up at least one-half of the workforce.

The Albany paper placed the quarry’s location “just east of the village and about half a mile north of, and is connected by, a track with the Delaware and Hudson railroad.”

The geology of the location allowed Rogers to quarry a lower-level sandstone beneath the more extensive layer of limestone. Most quarries were of limestone.

More than a century later, the location is hard to place, and any remnants of the operation harder still to find. At the beginning of the 1900s, North Street was the eastern edge of Cobleskill village.

A smaller quarry nearby, was referred to in a 1950s newspaper article as being “just off the present Legion Drive development.” The Rogers Quarry is believed, then, to be east and north of that, between Campus Drive and Burgin Drive. The elevated Granite Drive and the former Best Western Inn may be “benches,” created by quarry cuts taken into the hillside there.

Mother Nature has appeared to have reclaimed the Rogers Quarry property. The area includes Iorio Park, the Cobleskill Villag swimming pool, and dozens of middle-class and upper-income homes. There’s no remaining evidence of the short-line rail that once moved stone to the cutting yard across Main Street, either.

The Albany paper noted in its 1902 account that the Rogers Quarry had “been in existence hardly a year but already quarried some 10.000 yards of the finest building stone.” In fact, one of Rogers’s large contracts in New York City was secured after “specimens of stone were placed in competition and Cobleskill stone won.” At the time, the Rogers quarry had also furnished the Delaware and Hudson railroad with “a large quantity of stone.”

We share two news items from the 1901 files of Cobleskill Index to document the quarry’s growth in its first year of business.

The first news item describes the challenges of buying a steam locomotive for quarry use. From July 18, 1901: “The Rogers Company engaged [employee] Elmer Lawyer to go to Long Island and bring to Cobleskill a locomotive which they purchased of the Long Island Railroad, and which is to be used about the quarry and between the cutting yard and quarry.” (The cutting yard was adjacent to the D&H railroad, which runs east/west through the Village of Cobleskill. – ed.)

Getting the locomotive from Long Island to Cobleskill posed some problems.

The paper continues: “All went well until Central Bridge was reached when a wreck occurred, and the locomotive was hauled a half mile with one track derailed to the consternation and danger of Mr. Lawyer who occupied the cab.

“When the locomotive comes from the D&H shop at Oneonta, where it is being repaired, it will be used for work between the quarry and the cutting yard, Mr. Lawyer in charge.”

The month before Lawyer’s near catastrophic adventure, the quarry was getting ready for the train’s arrival. From the May 23, 1901,edition: “Eight Swedes arrived from New York and are erecting tressels [trestles] for the Rogers Quarry Company. Home workmen could not be secured to do the work.”

The Otsego Farmer of August 23, 1901, found a bit of quarry work of interest to their readers:

“Two spruce trees were felled at Summit last week and taken to Cobleskill to the Rogers quarry. One of the trees, stripped of branches and loaded, measured 50 feet in length, the other 62 feet. They are to be used as center poles for big derricks.”

ACCIDENTS MADE THE NEWS

Quarry work can be dangerous. We cite the Albany Evening Journal, June 18, 1902:

“Warren Karker met with what can be considered a very fortunate accident at the Rogers quarry last week. He runs a hoist engine and about 15 feet from where he was working several holes had been drilled, and ‘when the blasts were ready, he was notified and went to a safe distance.

“The first blast fired threw a stone weighing over 200 pounds, which struck and released the clutch of the hoist engine. letting the boom run down. Mr. Karker, thinking the blast was over, ran to his engine to stop the boom from falling; and as he did so a blast in the stone which was beneath his feet went off. He was only slightly injured, which under the circumstances was miraculous.”

The following month saw this happen, according to the Cobleskill Index of July 31, 1902

“Al Maretto. an Italian, had a leg broken at Rogers quarry about noon today. He operates a steam drill and was moving it when he fell off a rock and the drill fell on him, breaking both bones of his leg.” (The rock drills could weigh anywhere from about 180 to 600 pounds. – ed.)

Elmer Lawyer, whose locomotive misadventure described a few paragraphs previously, was seriously injured in August of that same year, the Cobleskill paper reported:

“Mr. Lawyer was engaged in firing an engine and near where he was working a gang of Italian laborers were unloading a car of coal. Mr. Lawyer was bending over in the act of picking up a large piece of coal to place in the engine, when he was hit on the back by coal thrown from the car being unloaded. The injury seems to have affected the spine, causing partial paralysis.”

WHERE THE STONE WENT

It is likely the Rogers Quarry was only a small part of the NYC-based John C. Rogers companies.  At about the time he was opening the Cobleskill quarry, he was credited in one account as starting construction on the 145th Street—”Harlem River”—bridge. The bridge was one of several built across NYC’s East River during the first decades of the 1900s.

Stone and cement from Schoharie County quarries were used in the Brooklyn Bridge, completed in 1883; in the Manhattan Bridge, finished in 1909; the Williamsburg Bridge, 1895; and the Queensboro Bridge, completed in 1909. The stone and cement were used in a variety of ways; as anchorages, abutments, piers, and rip-rap.

Both the Rogers Quarry and Klondike quarries had contract for what at the time the paper referred to as the NYC “tunnels.” The tunnels were going to be the city’s subway system, started in February 1900. Rogers provided stone for “section 9.” The subway system spread north from New York’s City hall, near the southern tip of Manhattan. The streets Section 9 covered are not known.

And an item from an Albany paper, under “Cobleskill News,” captures the moment the industry began to shift away from building stone to aggregate products.

“The stone crusher, which for some time has been in process of erection at the Rogers quarry, is now completed and was in operation for the first time on Tuesday [June 16]. From the Albany Evening Journal, June 18, 1903.

Sixth months later, the Stamford Recorder (Delaware County) on Dec. 26, 1903, reported the stone crusher had resulted in a sizeable contract worth about $8.5 million today.

“John C. Rogers of the Rogers Quarry Company of Cobleskill has secured a large contract. $1,651,717. in New York City, for the extension of the roadway along the Hudson.”

Two photos of the Rogers Quarry appear in Building with Stones and Clays: A Handbook for Architects and Engineers, published in 1917 for the Syracuse University bookstores. A photo of beautifully carved sandstone blocks describes it as “designed for constructional work in New York City.”

The second photo is captioned: “Rogers Quarry, Cobleskill, N.Y., showing the sandstone beds and the thickness of the glacial till.”

It’s uncertain when the Rogers Quarry ceased operations, but like the Schoharie County quarries that provided cut stone for construction, it did not survive the advent of concrete.  It is likely it closed sometime before 1906, when concrete had become the more commonly-used material.

A brief item in the Feb. 4, 1904, Cobleskill Index hinted at things to come.

“Owing to lack of orders requiring limestone, the Rogers quarry will open with only a small force, of perhaps 20 men. sometimes March. It is hoped that the receipt of orders, later, will increase this materially.

“Pierce Meade, who has been in charge of the office here, has been transferred to Deer Island Maine, the site of a large granite quarry where he will be in charge of the office. Many friends wish Mr. Meade success in his new field of labor.”

Like other quarries in the area, it took time to remove the evidence of a large, once-prosperous operation. While Mother Nature reclaimed the vacant site rather quickly, and owners could sell or move heavy equipment, it wasn’t an easy job. It is likely that steel and other heavy metal equipment no longer in use was melted down and salvaged to meet the need created by WWI.

It appears that work in 1937 removed all evidence of the Rogers Quarry in Cobleskill. It was not without mishap, reported the Cobleskill Index on April 29, 1937: “Ernest Resue of Ryder Avenue smashed the toes of his foot while working in the Roger Quarry here last Saturday, where a contractor is clearing up the old metal junk in the abandoned quarry.”

THE MYSTERIOUS END TO PROF. McFAIL

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(NOTE: Image is of the author, about 1975, in Selleck’s Cave near Carlisle. The initials “T.N.M” and the date 1844 are visible to his right.)

Thomas Alfred McFail (1828-1854) is remembered in the local history books for an untimely death. The location and circumstances of his death remain a mystery.

A mathematics and natural sciences instructor at the short-lived Carlisle Seminary school in the heart of Schoharie County’s Cave Country, he is believed to have died from a fall climbing from a cave in the Loesser’s Woods area, not far southeast from the school. There are several caves and pits in Loesser’s Woods, including the entrance to the longest cave in the northeast, named McFail’s, although that may not be cave the professor died in.

That’s just part of the confusion.

Bob Addis, friend and contributor to this website, in McFail’s Cave, the largest in the northeast.

There are different accounts of what happened the day the professor died. The most long-lived account is from William Roscoe’s 1882 History of Schoharie County, and unfortunately the author got the professor’s initials wrong, as well as the year he died1. And Roscoe has McFail dying in another cave, Selleck’s Cave, not far from Loesser’s Woods.

According to Roscoe, McFail died in 1853, and his middle name started with the consonant, ‘N.”  thus, Prof. T. N. McFail died from that fall in Selleck’s Cave, and a year earlier.

The simplest explanation for McFail’s death is likely the most accurate, but “simple” did not appeal to some newspaper writers of the period.

The New York City-based Tribune ran the story, attributed to a correspondent. The paper included a lengthy resolution attributed to a request by the seminary’s faculty. McFail’s fellow academics expressed great remorse at losing a fellow pedagogue “who bid fair to become a bright and shining light in the great Armament of mathematical science.”

The full text of the faculty’s resolution is undecipherable in the digital reproduction of the 160-year-old newspaper.

Under the simple headline “Accidental Death of Prof. McFail,” the Tribune’s report of July 8, 1854, with minor edits, follows.

“On the July last [July 1] Prof. McFail in company with Drs. Roscoe and Mayham2, started out to make a geological exploration of several caves, situated some two or three miles from the village. In visiting the last of these, they were obliged to let themselves down two perpendicular descents of fifty feet and thirty feet respectively, by means of ropes fastened above.

“This they accomplished in safety, as also the exploration of the cave as far as practicable—that is, about a quarter of a mile. On attempting a return Drs. R and M found no difficulty in climbing the rope at the lower descent of thirty feet; but Prof. McFail, who was of a considerably fuller habit, was unable to do the same. They then resorted to the expedient of doubling the rope, so that Prof. McFail might have something in which to rest his foot. One part of the double rope was made fast to a tree above, and up this part he climbed, while the Drs. pulled gradually on the other to keep his foot square in the sling.

“Thus, assisted he ascended some twenty feet, talking cheerfully all the while. At this point the Drs. suddenly felt that the rope had lost its weight, though there was no jerking of the rope whatever. A moment after a dull, heavy sound at the bottom of the cave-hole, and a stifled groan, told but too plainly what had happened.

“Dr. M. immediately descended to where he had fallen, while Dr. K. clambered up the other descent and summoned the neighbors. Prof. McFail was now hoisted upon blankets and taken to an adjoining house. Here he lay in great pain for nearly three hours, dying a few minutes before 7 o’clock p.m. He was sensible for only a very short time after his fall. The injuries were mostly internal and were supposed to be principally concussion of the brain and laceration of the liver.

“Thus, had fallen in the prime of life one whose memory will be fondly cherished by all who knew him.”

The Troy Daily Times ran a slightly different version of the story, which they in turn picked up from the Albany Journal of July 5. This time, he died nearly instantly, and left a stricken widow. They also eliminated his first name.

Headlined “Fatal Accident – Death of Prof. McFail,” the paper reported:

“A party of the students belonging to the Carlisle (Schoharie co.) Seminary, accompanied by Prof. Alfred McFail and others, proceeded on Saturday last to explore the celebrated Cave, located a few miles from the Seminary. They had closed their explorations and were returning when the accident occurred which resulted in the death of the Professor.

“It happened in this wise: The party had been in a pit of some hundred feet deep, and all had ascended by means of pully ropes, except Mr. McF. He was ascending, and had nearly reached the platform, when, by some means, he slipped from the rope seat and fell to the bottom of the cave.

“On being approached, he was found senseless, and died in a few minutes. He was a gentleman of rare endowments, well beloved by the students, and highly respected by all.

“He leaves a stricken wife to mourn his sudden departure.”

O, LET ME REST’

The July 18, 1854, Syracuse Daily Sentinel had a love of poetry, and shared the news of Prof. McFail’s death by publishing an anonymous mourner’s ode allegedly based on what the write claimed were the deceased’s final words, “O, Let Me Rest.”

It was one of several tributes in verse in the paper that day. The digital reproduction of the 160-year-old paper made the ode to Prof. McFail unreadable.

The paper’s introduction follows:

“The sad and untimely death of the late Prof. McFail, of Carlisle Seminary, has created a deep feeling of gloominess throughout that institution, and caused all who were acquainted with his situation in life, and with the melancholy circumstances attending his death, to drop a tear of sorrow to his memory.

“We learn that the Professor was an orphan in the world at the time of his death, and was universally beloved, admired, and respected. At the time he met with the accident which so suddenly deprived him of life, he said to those kind friends who had hastened to his relief, and who were about to raise his mangled and bleeding remains from the cold and ragged stones, ” O let me rest.”

“This sad and pitiful expression, made by one then in the agonies of death, and who accompanied the request with such an imploring look, touched deeply the hearts of all those present; it has suggested the lines which we publish below.

“They were sent us for publication by a Lady who knew the Prof, well, and whose kind heart seems to have sympathized with the afflicted, and to have learned “to melt at others in woe.”

(The undecipherable poem followed.)

NOT SELLECK’S CAVE?

In 1965, when the National Speleological Society accepted ownership of the McFail’s Cave property, it became the first cave in the country to be owned by the organization. Continuing discoveries since then have expanded the known length of the cave to nearly seven miles, making it the longest cave in the Northeastern United States.

In a 2005 address describing the importance of the NSS’s management of the cave3, society member Fred Stone, Ph.D. offered this: “Professor McFail entered a pit known locally as the “Ice Hole” on July 1, 1854, and was climbing a rope to the surface when he slipped, fell back into the pit, broke his neck, and died. The pit was filled with logs.

 “It is believed this is the pit now known as McFail’s Hole.” But Stone adds a twist; “a nearby pit, “Wick’s Hole” (seen from below) is full of large, suspended logs which totally block the pit, so it might have been the original Ice Hole.”

It has long been believed the professor carved his initials in Selleck’s Cave, something considered vandalism today. It’s not easy to carve into limestone with a pocket-knife, and the scratching in the stone reads, “T.N.M. -1844.” (Getting the middle initial wrong). While the potential is there to connect several of the caves in the Carlisle area to McFail’s, no one believes this is the cave in which McFail perished.

Also, McFail would have been 16 in 1844 and living in western New York. And the Carlisle Seminary had not been built at that time4.

Like the mysteries surrounding the circumstances of his death, there is little is known of the life of Prof. McFail. He was born in 1828 in Pike, in western New York, and was a graduate of Genessee College in 1852. He served as principal at the Union School, Scottsville, NY, from 1852-3, and then became professor of mathematics and natural science at the Carlisle Seminary, 1853-4.

The Carlisle Grove Seminary was also short lived.  Opened in 1853, it was destroyed by fire in 1865, according to the historical marker near the site.

A great NSS website describes the cave preserve named for the professor, its history, and management, along with some great underground photos here: McFails Cave Nature Preserve 

1 I was among those perpetuating the error, citing Roscoe’s account in 2021’s Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure and Enterprise in NY’s Cave County. To date, no one has called me out on it.

2 These are two other professors at the Carlisle Seminary. Dr. Roscoe is not believed to be related to the historian, William Roscoe.

3 McFail’s Cave, the Beginning of NSS Cave Ownership and Development of a Model for Interactive Cave Management, by Fred D. Stone, PhD (NSS member number 6015) Hawaii Community College, Hilo, HI.

4 We’re not sure how the initials in Selleck’s Cave became identified with Prof. McFail. They were first recorded only as “T.N.M.” by explorer Arthur VanVoris in 1929 in Lesser Caves of Schoharie County. However, they are identified as McFail’s initials in a 1960s-era guide to the caves of Schoharie County.