Category Archives: Howe’s Cave

RETURN TO VEENFLIET’S CAVE, SCHOHARIE

EDITOR’S NOTE: We return here to Schoharie’s Cave of the Tapir’s Tooth (see Nov. 1, 2023, post). This account offers numerous new details on the cave’s 1831 discovery, its rich history, and challenging exploration. We meet then-owner and namesake, Richard VeenFliet, and learn he once considered opening his cave along the banks of the Schoharie Creek to the public. VeenFliet’s Cave also figures prominently in Garden of Eden lore. See last month’s post by Bob Addis.

Originally published as “The Tale of an Ancient Tapir and His Abode in the Mysterious Caves of Schoharie,” in The Knickerbocker Press, Sunday, May 1, 1933. By Ray A. Mowers. The photographs used are from that article.

Hunting a title for this unusual story, there is one that seemed perfectly swell: “The Tale of a Tapir’s Tooth.”

There is just one discrepancy while a tapir’s tooth does figure in the tale, the tale itself is not so toothsome—which, if not gaudy, is a pretty fair pun as puns go, in this era of radio comedy.

As a matter of cold, dank fact, this story deals with the rediscovery of a cave in the age-old limestone of Schoharie County—a cave found a century ago by John Gebhard Jr. the first geologist New York state ever had¹.

The tooth of a tapir was. . . But it’s a little too soon to speak of that.

Now, for at least the third time since its discovery, this cave’s almost wholly virgin area is about to be explored. And this time, perhaps, it may be prepared for public inspection. If so, it will add another to the growing string of underground curiosities in the historic Schoharie Valley².

One sultry day in the summer of 1831, John Gebhard Jr.³, geologist extraordinaire, allowed his curiosity to get the better of him—a common fault with scientists the world over. He wanted to know where that ice-cold water came from that bubbled ceaselessly from the foot of a rocky ravine on property adjoining has own.

The investigation which he began led to a yawning cavern in the limestone rocks a few hundred feet from his home, then located on the Schoharie river shore. The opening is small but still large enough for him to penetrate within the side of the rocky surface walls.

What he saw that day caused him to take a few friends into his confidence. They accompanied him to the scene. As a consequence, Jr. Gebhard and his companions expended considerable energy in clearing away debris about the mouth of the cavern. They managed to explore back 500 feet before encountering a barrier.

**LEFT, The entrance to VeenFliet’s Cave along the Schoharie Creek, east of the Bridge Street, or “Gebhard” Bridge. Center, the tapir’s teeth found in the cave, and finally at right, owner** **Richard VeenFliet.**

Determined that someday they would blast out this barrier and see what lay beyond, the explorers of a century ago rested on their laurels and the work ended there.

EXPLORATIONS RENEWED

It seemed there had been little descriptive material dealing with the discovery prepared for posterity when Geologist Gebhard and his friends passed on. At any rate, it was not until 1867 that, according to existing records, another attempt was made to open the cavern.

Once more intervening years had clogged the opening, and it again was necessary to ply pick and shovel to provide easy entrance.

On this occasion, the cavern floor was covered with water ranging to varying depths but requiring the use of a boat to get in and about.

Again, the barrier was encountered and like their predecessor, the new set of explorers determined to blast it away and see what lay beyond. This was never done.

More than six decades have passed since this exploring party disintegrated and turned its attention to other things.

At that time, the cave was on property owned by Napoleon Clark and, what had once been locally known as Gebhard’s Cave, became Clark’s Cave for the time being.

PROPERTY CHANGES HANDS

Long before those post-bellum days, the land had been added to the property on the southerly side of the Schoharie-East Cobleskill road, owned for more than a century by a succession of Gebhards.

Several years ago, the last of the Gebhards died and the property came into the possession of Richard Veenfliet, Jr., a man with a strong geological bent who had passed many hours with members of the Gebhard family, collecting valuable paleontological exhibits.

**A crude map of the cave frome a 1950s guide to the caves of Schoharie County. The entrance is at the right. an unknown explorer’s handwritten remarks at included.**

When the old Gebhard residence overlooking the Schoharie was burned, Mr. Veenfliet built a modern home upon its site. Back of it still stands the original John Gebhard barn of the early 19^th Century, held staunch by gigantic handhewn timbers.

Across the highway and back in the ravine, the new owner took his determined way one day about two years ago. There he espied the entrance to the cavern which State Geologist Gebhard had explored almost exactly a century ago.

For a third time shovels and picks were carried to the debris-choked entrance to clear away the deposits of 50 winters.

Finally forcing entrance, Mr. Veenfliet found his labor and time had been profitably spent so far as his concern in geological affairs went. He also discovered an antique lamp within the cavern portal, evidently left behind by Gebhard, the explorer of 1831. He found, too, other evidence of the work done by his successors of 1867.

Equipped with modern electric hand torches, Mr. Veenfliet was easily able to’ overcome the handicap of ineffective illumination from which his predecessors unquestionably had suffered.

What his lamps disclosed made him hold his breath in astonishment.

Not since Lester Howe took his eccentric self within the portals of his celebrated cave back in 1847⁴ had anyone beheld such an untouched, unmarred display of limestone stalactites and stalagmites. Here, he decided, was something well worthwhile.

ENTER TAPIR’S TOOTH

Returning to the sunshine outside, the new discoverer decided in the way of his predecessor to summon at least one friend upon whom he could depend for personal interest in such a project– Charles Helma, of Schenectady. Together, they set to work to dig away the remainder of the debris at the mouth of the cavern and conduct further exploration. While engaged in this work, they came upon one of the chief discoveries of their enterprise. It was the tooth of a strange animal together with what appeared to be a portion of a vertebrae.

The tooth was without roots. It had a creamy tint of old ivory and a high polish. Dispatched to scientists at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and later to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, the tooth was pronounced that of a tapir.

The tapir now is confined to a habitat in Central and South America. Once, ft seems, it ranged the glacier-ridden terrains farther north.

The tooth, said the scientists, must have been dropped in the cavern or deposited in one of the strata now forming it not less than 25,000 years ago in what is known as Upper Pleistocene period.

FINDS INNER CHAMBER

Five hundred feet from the entrance, Mr. Veenfliet and Mr. Helma encountered the barrier which had blocked the explorations of both 1831 and 1867. It is of beautiful flowstone, not clay as Gebhard characterized it in the uncertain light of his antique coal-oil lantern.

On either side of the barrier, the new discovers found narrow passageways leading onward. One was found to be narrow and tortuous with a treacherous quicksand floor. The other was negotiable for a slender man lying prone and pulling himself along like a serpent.

Mr. Veenfliet essayed the passage. He discovered at the end of 30 feet that a magnificent stalactite barred egress at the farther end of the rocky tube. It resisted all hie efforts to break ft.

His electric flash lamp’s rays showed he was at the end of the narrow tunnel and beyond lay a gigantic room studded with translucent glories in limestone, never before seen by man. If he could have passed the obstinate stalactite, it would have been possible to turn about and crawl back to daylight head on, just as he had come. As it was, however, he was compelled to retrace his way by laboriously pushing himself feet foremost to where Mr. Helma was waiting eagerly.

One problem had been solved—there was a way to go on regardless of the flowstone barrier. But it left unanswered the question whether the newly explored passage led to the main cavern behind the barrier or to another independent branch of the subterranean mystery.

And so, the matter rests today while Mr. Veenfliet seeks ways and means to develop this thing of an earthly beauty which lies below the surface of his rugged land.

OTHER CAVES NEARBY

This cavern—once Gebhards, then Clarks and now Veenfliets—is the only one ever discovered in West Mountain, the towering limestone tablerock that divides the watersheds of the Schoharie from the Cobleskill Valley all the way from Central Bridge westward, until it loses its identify with mountains of the northernmost Catskills.

Those who would look into this rediscovery of Gebhard’s century-old find should cross the bridge at Schoharie on the road to East Cobleskill. An ancient watering trough will be found beside the highway. It was there the farmers of Cobleskill, Barnerville, and elsewhere on the north side of the divide were wont to let their horses drink on the long ride to and from the county seat.

The water supplying this trough comes from the boiling spring of icy water which John Gebhard traced to the subterranean source within his cave 100 years ago – the cave of the tapir’s tooth.

¹ Not exactly. He was the first curator of “Geological Hall” in Albany, which later became the NYS Museum. His field work before that supported the publication of the 1843 New York Geological Survey, Samples from the survey—taken from across the state—figured in the creation of the Hall, originally referred to as the state “cabinet.” See “The Gebhards of Schoharie,” Chapter 1, Section IV of my book, Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure & Enterprise in NY’s Cave Country. Available here.

² Howe Caverns and Secret Caverns were open to the public just four years earlier, and a third cave, Schoharie Caverns, was being prepared at around this same time.

³ Born 1802, died 1889.

⁴ The correct date is 1842.

FACT OR FICTION: LESTER HOWE’S ‘GARDEN OF EDEN’

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Editor’s Note: I’m happy to share our first “guest blog,” written by an old friend and caving mentor, Bob Addis. He shares his thoughts on one of caving’s greatest folk tales, that of the Howe “Garden of Eden.” (Incidentally, both Bob and I have put in time searching for the lost cave. We’ll keep it a secret. Photo by Art Palmer.)

By BOB ADDIS

The best and most often told tale-yarn-legend in northeastern caving circles is that of Lester Howe’s long-sought “Garden of Eden Cave” and the “Finger of Geology” that points to its location.

Learning the tale is a prerequisite for every new adventurer who takes an interest in NY’s Cave Country. The Garden of Eden legend has encouraged more cave hunting activity—ridge walking, digging, and hard pushing in the most dismal low, wet and muddy crawls and impossibly tight crevices—than anyone could imagine. It’s also been good for the advancement of NE cave science and “building the character” of the cavers who move on to states with more, and larger, caves.

How it All Began

The story begins like this: On his death bed in July 1888, Lester Howe is rumored to have sat up and said, “I have discovered a cave larger and more beautiful than Howe’s Cave, but I will reveal its location to no man.” He flopped back and died. Good one, heh?

A lesser repeated subset rumor, but without an exact quote, is that two men learned of the location from Howe at this time. The pact they made was that after one of them died, another new man would be entrusted with the secret. In that way, at least two men would always know the cave’s location.

Of course, both men died without passing along the secret of the Garden of Eden.

**YOUNG BOB AFTER HIS FIRST TRIP TO HOWE CAVERNS**

Lester was a rascal, self-promoter, and well known for blowing smoke.

For example, Lester guided many of the early tours through Howe’s Cave and numerous newspaper accounts varied on the details given them by Howe. He may have simply “made it up as he went along!” (I won’t attempt to prove this point here since both Thom Engel’s book and two by Dana Cudmore do an excellent job on the subject.)

From about 1928-31, Arthur Van Voris, a Cobleskill merchant, led a group of young men around the cave country and recorded their underground adventures in a series called The Lesser Caves of Schoharie County. Separate editions were held in five loose-leaf, three-ring notebooks. Some articles also appeared in the local papers.

The five notebooks were continuously updated and expanded by Van Voris and given to what he considered reference facilities. As a result of his updating habit, the notebooks didn’t all have the same content and by 1980 they all had been lost or stolen. Fortunately, the regional Mohawk-Hudson Grotto of the National Speleological Society borrowed one notebook in 1970, retyped it, and put out a limited edition of the publication, thus saving its important contents.

Van Voris’s brother-in-law, Edward Rew, was one of those early cavers and most likely no stranger to smoke blowing. One or more of the notebooks had Rew’s account of a solo trip he took one night during a dry season when water levels were extremely low. He explored Veen Fliet’s Cave on the Schoharie Creek near the village of the same name, and he claimed he went on and on a great distance only to turn back when he realized he was alone with only one flashlight, or some such. He never could get back to the cave and delayed telling the story for years. (More about this later.)

Was Lester’s deathbed description of finding a “larger and more beautiful” cave his own? Interestingly, Howe’s last utterance only first appears in Van Voris’s newspaper articles in the 1930s and hadn’t been found previously. But remember, Lester was a rascal and could have said it only to perplex future generations!

And now, the Finger of Geology

The northeast has raised many speleologists who have gone on to national and international acclaim. Geologists are quick to note the lineal nature of the fractures and fissures in the area’s bedrock limestones, and how cave passages were often created from them. That they “lined up” hints the passages might continue beyond any obstacle that blocked them along these major and minor joint patterns. Could new cave passages—maybe even the Garden of Eden—be found by following the joint patterns?

The most obvious case was roughly a mile of large trunk passage in McFail’s Cave, collectively the NW and SE passages, lining up closely with about a mile of similar passage in Howe Caverns, i.e., Lester Howe’s Cave.

**LARGE PASSAGE IN McFAIL’S CAVE.** *Cave photos for this article by Art Palmer, Oneonta.*

On a bearing of N47W, these two large passages are truncated by a valley cut by glaciers 100,000 years ago.

Extend that bearing to S47E and it points at a geological feature called Terrace Mountain. This a plateau of mostly limestone left after twoseparate streams cut around it. The south is bound by the Schoharie Creek and the geologically younger east side is bound by the Cobleskill Creek.

Terrace Mountain has another important link to our story. It was home to Lester Howe’s Garden of Eden farm, where he settled sometime around 1870 after selling his beloved (first?) cave, and the site became an epicenter of Lester weirdness and other tall tales and rumors we won’t get into here.

Extending that compass bearing from McFail’s through the trunk of Howe’s Cave through Terrace Mountain, with some imagination and a slightly flexible straightedge, it leads to Rew’s findings in Veen Fliet’s Cave. And it comes close to some smaller caves and pits on Terrace Mountain as well.

So naturally, one could assume this is the Finger of Geology pointing out where cavers should go to look for the fabled cave! Rew, also known for some good-natured prevarication, hinted that it was.

By the 1950s, a group of enthusiastic cavers in the Tri-County Grotto from Oneonta in neighboring Otsego County, worked the Schoharie County caves hard and produced amazing and strange discoveries. A young Cliff Foreman was making a name for himself as part of that group. Again, I refer to Cudmore’s books documenting this.

Forward to the “Golden Caving Age” of the 1960s in the northeast and the presence of three brilliant pranksters: Dave Beiter, Steve Egemeirer and again, Cliff Foreman. To the urban, sophisticated new cavers coming out of New York City and New Jersey, these rural “Super Cavers” appeared to be easy sources of information on the caves and geology of Schoharie County. The newcomers assumed they could simply flatter their rural experts and pump them with questions to find their way around the cave country.

The game wasn’t going to be that easy.

Dave would pull out his topographic maps and Steve, a professional geologist with the USGS, would run his finger from McFail’s to Howe and on to Terrace Mountain and Veen Fliet’s, all the time chattering on about “the Finger of Geology” and tapping along the line on the map. (I witnessed this procedure several times and apparently none of the newer cavers ever got the joke or the information. I was 22 at the time.)

And the fun part of this “game” was for Dave, Steve, and Cliff to take on different roles in the farce. Any one of them was capable of spinning the yarn or asking leading questions to hint at the fabled cave’s possible location. Dave went so far one year as to indicate a fabricated location for the Garden of Eden on a map, and then leave the rolled-up map where the other group might find it. Sure enough, next year a dig was underway at the very spot.

Dave, Steve and Cliff have passed, but the rumor they helped spread persists 135 years after Howe’s death. True or not, it certainly has been a driving force in caving the northeast. I think Cudmore in his book, Underground Empires, expressed the dream and drive best. “There, in a vast room miles into the hillside, set among abundant crystal-like formations, the explorers may find chiseled in the limestone wall or written in soot from an oil-burning lamp: “Garden of Eden Cave. Discovered 1855 by L. Howe.

Bob Addis, a retired engineer living is Scotia, New York, is a long-time northeastern caver, former Howe Caverns tour guide, and past member of the board of governors of the National Speleological Society. His MBA thesis on the management of Knox Cave in Albany County led to the creation of the Northeastern Cave Conservancy in 1978. One of the conservancy’s three founding members, he served as president of that organization for 38 years.

He has managed several caves open to the public, and explored wild caves across the US, and in Germany, Mexico, and South Africa.

AN UNSUNG HERO OF THE HOWE CAVERNS TRAGEDY

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Calls for Help Nearly Overwhelmed Small Bramanville Telephone Exchange

Thursday, April 24, 1930, was a dark day in the long history of Howe Caverns, Inc. The cave’s chief electrician Owen Wallis and caverns’ corporation secretary John Sagendorf died in the cave under baffling circumstances. They collapsed in the early morning hours near the postcard-worthy formation, “The Bell of Moscow.”

When the two men failed to return that morning, a third was sent into the cave to find why. This 25-year-old tour guide returned alone minutes later, warning of “poisonous gases,” fell out of the elevator, and then collapsed, later recovering in an Albany hospital.

That warning set off a chaotic series of efforts to rescue and revive the men. Those efforts, as well as the investigation and court case that followed, are captured in my April 2024 book, The Cave electrician’s Widow: The Tragedy at Howe Caverns and Dramatic Courtroom Fight for Justice.

The local emergency squads were unequipped to handle the response, and calls for help went out across the region. The news quickly spread.

One of the first to hear of the growing emergency was 37-year-old Elizabeth “Louise” Millspaugh, the operator at the Bramanville Telephone Exchange, operating from the switchboard in her home nearby. Except for the 200-plus subscribers at the 20-year-old telephone exchange, all calls were long distance, and required Louise—her friends called her “Eliza” —to patch forward the desperate calls from the caverns’ lodge to the long-distance operator. There was no guarantee the number would go through; it may take several attempts.

As the news spread, the Bramanville Exchange was deluged with calls from friends and neighbors of Wallis and Sagendorf. “Newspaper men” from the Capital Region and beyond were also calling, and repeatedly, for updates.

They all went through Eliza’s line.

Eliza would have been 37 at the time. With her husband Earl, they purchased the Bramanville Telephone Exchange in 1923 from its founder, Palmer Slingerland, a Town of Cobleskill supervisor and well-known Bramanville business owner.

The switchboard was in her home in the small hamlet (pop. less than a 1,000) on the road to the cave. Eliza not only knew the victims and their families but must have also heard every siren racing by. She could anxiously count the minutes from the time of her call to the time the ambulance passed.

The day began just before the 5 a.m. sunrise when a planned blast at the North American Cement Plant in Howes Cave knocked 60,000 tons of limestone from the hillside southeast of the cave. It ended as the sun was setting, after hours of resuscitation efforts and Wallis and Sagendorf were declared dead. “Unknown causes” were cited by the medical professionals at the scene.

In its extensive front-page coverage of the tragedy, The Schoharie Republican, gave pause to recognize Eliza Millspaugh as an “unsung heroine,” the telephone operator through whose exchange all calls to and from the caverns lodge had to pass that day.

“Exhausted, Mrs. Millspaugh sat for hours through a torrent of calls which would have overwhelmed an exchange of thrice the capacity of the one she manned. Her aged father cared for her little granddaughter during the tremendous strain under which she labored in doing her bit in the effort to save the lives of two men.”

Parts taken from The Cave electrician’s Widow: The Tragedy at Howe Caverns and Dramatic Courtroom Fight for Justice.

FIVE DAYS & A CAVE TOUR – UNDER $17!

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This website’s blog post, “Howe’s Cave & The Railroad,” (Sept. 2023 archive) offers readers a brief history of the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad, its impact on the cave, and a few insights on traveling the rail-line in the second half of the 19^th Century to arrive at Howe’s Cave. (The steamboat image was likely typical of those that served NY’s Hudson River.)

**A flier for the A&S, circa 1875, showing stops and fares, at 3 cents per mile.**

Getting to Howe’s Cave was an adventure in and of itself, one that few travelers of today might be willing to undertake.

Here are two newspaper accounts from that period describing the journey by Hudson River steamboat and then rail.

“The New Yorker reaches it by traversing a lovely route if he takes the steamer Albany or C. Vibbard, enjoys the scenery of the peerless Hudson by daylight, a night’s rest in our capital city, and a morning ride to the cave over the line of the Albany and Susquehanna railroad.

“There are few railroads in our country that possess for so many miles such interest and variety as this, extending to Binghamton,142 miles from Albany, and following the valleys of three streams —the Schoharie, the Cobleskill, and the Susquehanna.

“During the first thirty-one miles we pass through the pleasing Villages of Adamsville¹, Slingerlands, New Scotland, Knowersville², Duanesburgh, Quaker Street (formerly a Quaker settlement) and Esperance, the site of which village was purchased in 1800 by Gen. William North and named by him from a French word signifying hope. It was incorporated April 1832.

“At Central Bridge, five miles farther on, is the junction with the branch road for Schoharie Court House and Middleburgh. and a quarter of an hour later the “Howe’s Cave!” of the brakeman causes a scramble for baggage and a hasty exit from the car to the little station near the mouth of the Wonderous Caverns.”

—The Albany Argus August 29, 1881

**One of Albany’s finest hotels of the late 1800s, *The Delevan* sat across from the busy train depot and Hudson River port in the state’s capitol.**

And an Oneida County newspaper describes what it’s like at the journey’s end.

“Directly in the front of the station, on a rising ground with an easy grade, stands the beautiful Pavilion Hotel, with an open lawn in front and lovely flowers and shady groves to the right, improved by walks, seats, swings and recreation ground inviting to pleasure. The house is first-class in every particular, provided with all the modern improvements, and nothing is left undone that would render guests comfortable and happy.

“The manager, C. H. Ramsey, is a gentleman of rare ability, sociable, easy in his manners and well calculated to please his patrons. Still added to all these attractions there is a natural curiosity—the wonderful Howe’ s Cave.” —The Clinton Courier, June 15, 1887

Five Days for Under $17

As the first writer suggests, the steamboat ride from New York City to Albany took enough of the day to require an overnight stay in the Capitol. The steamer ticket was likely between $2 and $2.50, which would also be about to the cost of an overnight stay in one of Albany’s finer hotels near the train station.

The next morning, a jostling, 39-mile ride on the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad—with water stops about every 10 miles—took travelers to the Howes Cave depot. From Albany, the price of a one-way trip was $1.17; from the other end of the line, Harpersfield in Broome County, an 81-mile trip cost $2.67.

If a traveler was lucky, he or she could catch an early-morning cave tour and be back above ground in time for a late evening train back to Albany. That was uncommon, and most visitors would have opted for a stay at the Pavilion Hotel at $2.50 per night, leaving early the next day to catch the NYC-bound steamer at the Port of Albany.

For a New York City resident of the late 1800s, a visit to Howe’s Cave was at least a four-day affair, more likely five or six. The estimated cost, not including meals or taxes, would be for the Steamboat, round-trip from NYC, $4.50; Rail fare, round-trip, Albany to Howes Cave, $2.40; Overnight hotel stay in Albany, $2.50; Cave tour, $1.00; Two nights at the Pavilion Hotel in Howes Cave, $5.00, for a total of $16.40.

¹A small community in the northeastern section of what is today Lansingburgh.

²Altamont

IN 1898: THE HELDERBERG CEMENT CO. CHANGED HOWES CAVE FOREVER

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The article that follows captures a transformative moment in the 150-plus year history of the cement industry in Howes Cave. It documents the creation of the Helderberg Cement Company and the company’s plans to end production of Rosendale, or “natural” cement, to move to the preferred “Portland” cement. Doing so allowed the company to close the underground mines and move above ground to quarry the high-level, calcium rich limestone strata.

This adds considerable detail to the story told in “Unearthing Howes Cave: A Community and a Quarry from 1842 on,” which appears as Section II of Underground Empires.

**PHOTO SHOWS ENTRANCE TO NATURAL CEMENT MINE AT HOWES CAVE, BOTTOM CENTER.**

Reproduced here is the article as it appeared in The Cobleskill Index, March 8, 1898. as well as the Albany Argus, Feb. 27, 1898.

NEW CEMENT CO. ■ Howes Cave Booming

Two Cement Companies Consolidated. Important Discovery of Clay and Limestone Deposits.

The Sunday Argus presents the following relative to the proposed Cement Works at Bowes Cave: The organization of a new cement Co., in which Albany capitalists hold the majority of the stock was consummated last week.

The new concern is to be operated under the charter of the Howes Cave association, and will have a capital stock of $300,000, divided into shares of $100 each. [This was soon soon to become Helderberg Cement Co.]

The new Howes Cave association is a consolidation of the Howes Cave Lime and Cement company and the former Howes Cave association.

The Howes Cave Lime and Cement company had a capital of $100,000 and was the owner of 100 acres of mining and mineral lands at Howes Cave. The former Howes Cave association had a capital ci $200,000. It was the owner ot the celebrated cave, the beauties of which are familiar to many Albanians; conducted a large Summer hotel at Howes Cave and was also engaged in the manufacture of lime and cement.

The association owned 103 acres of mining and mineral lands in the same vicinity.

Last Summer, Mr. Sheldon Norton of Hokendauqua, Pa., while visiting at the cave as a guest of the hotel there discovered that the clay and limestone deposits in that vicinity contained just the right properties to make the best kind of Portland cement.

Be analyzed the deposits and had other chemists do the same, and their results corresponded with the analyses of the best German cement. This surprising and valuable discovery was communicated by Mr. Norton to a few of his friends, and experiments were conducted which satisfied them that they had on hand tn easy, available, and abundant supply of raw material for the manfacture of one of the best grades of cement in the world.

A syndicate of Capitalists was next formed to cany out the manufacturing at Howes Cave Prominent among those forming the syndicate were well-known Albanians and a few prominent residents of Binghamton.

**A WORKER IN THE HOWES CAVE QUARRY CLAY PIT, MID-1940S. CLAY WAS A CRUCIAL PART OF THE PORTLAND CMENT MIX. THE NORTH AMERICAN CEMTN COMPANY WAS A LATER OWNER.**

The new company formed bought all the stock of the Howes Cave Lime and Cement company and of the Howes Cave association. It also purchased about 200 acres more land in that vicinity, including the farm of Eli Rose and a portion of the farms of Richard Richards and Myron Fellows.

This gave . . . the ownership. . . over 400 acres of land having a frontage of over a mile of the tracks of the Albany and Susquehanna railroad.

The purpose of the new owners of the Howes Cart association is to manufacture the Portland cement, and to continue making natural cement, which latter work it has already entered up. The present natural cement beds are to be remodeled and new and improved machinery substituted.

The large Portland cement plant to be erected is to have a capacity of 1,000 barrels per day.

No costly plants where Portland cement is made will be required at Howes Cave. The floor of j j be cave proper is covered with clay already prepared by nature for just such purposes.

The removal of this clay from the cave will add to its beauties and open many more spacious new rooms for the inspection of visitors. The company, which now owns all the property at Howes Cave except five buildings, the schoolhouse and railroad property, is to continue to operate the handsome big summer hotel.

It is believed that Howes Cave will become even more popular in the near future In the estimation of the summer tourist and pleasure seekers.

The officers of the new company are T. Henry Drumary, of Albany, president; Charles E. Lee, of Binghamton, vice president and general manager; Charles H. Ramsey. of Howes Cave, secretary and treasurer; Sheldon Norton of Hokendauqua, Pa., superintendent.

Besides Mr. T. Henry Dumary, the list of the Albany stockholders includes the names of ex Judge John McNamara, Thomas E. Murray, Charles H. Armatage, and Miss Julia Merrick. Former assemblyman John J. Cassin of Rensselaer, and Messrs. Lee, Norton and Armatage are other prominent stockholders.

The company expects to open a sales office in the Benson building in this city and Mr. Lee. the generaI manager, expects to become a resident Albanian.

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 9^th 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 12^th 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

¹I 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.

²These 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.

1928 WEDDING CHRISTENS NEW OWNERS’ NEW BRIDAL ALTAR

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The first wedding underground in Howe’s Cave may have taken place as early as 1852, as noted in my book, Underground Empires. The Howe children—Huldah, Harriet, and Halsey—were all married in the cave around that time, and weddings undoubtedly continued on a sporadic basis right up until about 1900, when the cave’s owners at the time discouraged the day-long tours.

Howe Caverns, Inc. was formed in 1927 and developed the back half of the cave as a tourist destination with an elevator entrance, electric lights, brick baths and handrails. The bridal chamber opened by the Howes was near the cave’s old entrance and not owned by the caverns’ corporation, so the new cave owners went about creating their own, naming it the “Bridal Altar.”

**Howe Caverns’ Bridal Altar – an artist’s rendition from a 1950s brochure.**

This new Bridal Altar’s key feature is a heart of pure white, translucent calcite illuminated from below, and intended for couples to stand on while taking their vows.

The first wedding in the new Howe Caverns took place before the cave was open to the public in 1929. The story, written for the press by the corporation’s boastfully eloquent publicist, follows. Here it is still referred to as the “bridal chamber,” not altar.

From The Cobleskill Index, Thursday, May 24, 1928

Bridal Chamber in Howe Cavern Again Scene of Wedding Ceremony

The marriage of Roger Henry Mallery of Owego, N.Y., to Margaret May Provost of Howes Cave, was solemnized in the Bridal Chamber of Howe Caverns on Thursday night. May 10th, 1928, at 11:30 o’clock.

The beautiful ring service was performed i by the Rev. Fred M. Hagadorn, pastor of the Cobleskill Methodist Church, in the presence of Mrs. Louise Provost, mother of ‘the bride; Francis Provost, brother of the bride, and John J. Sagendorf. of Howes Cave.

It was one of the most unique romantic weddings which has ever taken place in this section of the state.

Deep within the silent vaults of this second largest cavern in the world; far beyond all sound of the familiar world above: where the mighty grandeur of the World’s Supreme Architect dwindles the efforts of man into insignificance: here where He first saw the pattern of nave and groined ceiling; there the column, pedestal and capital were reared countless ages e’er man came to be; here where earth’s mightiest Cathedral—in contrast grows small, the clergyman’s voice broke the awful silence as he spoke the marriage ritual.

**A picturesque view from the Bridal altar, looking into Titan’s Temple**

The bridal party stood in the great balcony of Titan’s mighty Temple. Before them was the exquisitely beautiful “Lake of the Fairies” where stalactite formations are inverted in perfect reflections. Just at the left of the groom was the “Fountain of Somnus” glowing in its sleep. Back of them stretched the vast reaches of the Temple of this giant of the gods of mythology whose unbroken ceiling is probably the largest in existence. Here, great masses of calcite crystallization witnessed for the first time the sparkle of the queen of their kind as the nuptial ring glistened when placed on the finger of the bride. All of the lesser crystals must have blushed at the presence of their perfected sisterhood of gems, shining forth from the tremulous finger of she who was promising.

Vows plighted and promises made in the presence of such might and majesty; witnessed thus by symbols of eternity, cannot be broken or forgotten.

The bride who has spent her life near the great cavern is a graduate of Cobleskill High school, class of 1922, followed by a post-graduate course in the same school. Graduated from the New York State College for Teachers at Albany in 1927. specializing in French and English.

During the past year she has been a student in The American Academy of Dramatic Art, Carnegie Hall building in New York, the oldest institution of its kind in America. Later she specialized in dramatic art under the special instruction of Helen B. Carey. She also studied piano under J. Austin Springer.

Roger Henry Mallery is a member of Signi Pi Fraternity of Cornell University and is a civil engineer of marked ability. Among the great engineering feats of his career has been the re-conditioning of Howe Caverns.

The bridal couple spent their honeymoon in Albany, Philadelphia, Atlantic City.

Immediately upon their return, Mr. Mallery received the contract for the construction of the bridge at Schoharie, to replace the one which collapsed a few weeks ago.

The bride was the recipient of many valuable gifts while the groom was remembered by the employees of the cavern with a service of solid silver.

Their wedding was of outstanding interest and the prospects of a long, happy, and useful life stretch out before them through the vistas of the coming years.

—Chauncey Rickard

CARVED HEART OF CALCITE MARKS THE SPOT

On page 84 of Underground Empires is the version which ran in The Cobleskill Times, a competitor to the newspaper who carried the above. I’m sure the editor thought “I’m not running this gibberish” when Chauncey handed him his account of the wedding.

Also, it sounds as if Mallery’s no longer works at the cave, although construction underground continued, often in two shifts, for all of 1928 and early 1929.

The Mallery descendants say that Roger, Sr. was responsible for carving the calcite heart in the new Bridal Altar, as a symbol of his love for his young bride. Tour guides at Secret Caverns say the sizeable chunk of calcite for the heart was broken from a formation at their cave, known as ‘frozen Niagara.” That seems unlikely, as Mallery, Sr. was making plans to show Secret Caverns to the public around that same time.

For more information/recommended reading: UNDERGROUND EMPIRES: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure & enterprise in NY’s Cave Country

A CENTURY LATER, PROF. COOK’S ‘MYSTERY CAVER’ IS REVEALED

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Author Clay Perry, a light bulb moment, and a quick Google search solved cavers’ decades-old mystery, “Who is Professor Cook’s mystery man in several of his 1905 photos?”

19 LIMESTONE CAVES IN EASTERN NY STUDIED

Professor John C. Cook produced “Limestone Caverns of Eastern New York” for the 60th annual report of the New York State Museum. published in 1906. His report documents the karst development of the Onondaga, Becraft and the Manlius limestones in Schoharie and Albany counties. He produced nine maps with surveyor James. F. Loughran, and 40 photos on 4×5” glass-plate negatives¹, with his brother, Harry C. Cook.

In all, Prof. Cook mentions 19 caves, most of them familiar to cavers of the northeast.

“The work was prosecuted with vigor though it was arduous and venturesome, involving risks to persons which few would care to take,” wrote Museum Director John M. Clarke. He was evidently pleased with the work of the Cook team: “The results have been entirely satisfactory. . .”

Cook’s work in old Howe’s Cave is particularly noteworthy. His map of the cave’s portions that were lost to quarrying is all historians have to help recreate the famous cave in its entirely. With the report are several photos of the cave’s outstanding features prior to its 1929 development and reopening as Howe Caverns, Inc.

Perhaps the most well-known photo from Cook’s report is of a solitary young man in muddy duck-bibbed coveralls and beaten pork-pie hat, his eyes closed, resting next to a huge and beautiful stalagmite. Twenty-plus years later, Howe Caverns’ developers placed this formation—nearly 12 feet high—upright on a solid base and named it “The Chinese Pagoda.”

The photo has been well used. I’ve used it in both my books on the cave, and it was turned into an historic souvenir postcard sold in the caverns’ gift shop.

The mystery caver has always been described as “unidentified.” His image shows up in several of the younger Cook’s photos in the report (some with his eyes open). At various times, it’s been suggested this mystery man was a hired laborer mentioned in a 1906 newspaper account or a knowledgeable local caver acting as a guide, or maybe even a young D.C. Robinson of Knox Cave fame. But who is he?

AHA!

Surveyor James. F. Loughran rests against the ‘Chinese Pagoda’ in Howe Caverns during a surveying trip in 1905. The name of this caver who accompanied Prof. John C. Cook for the State Museum was lost to history, until recently.

I was reading again through Clay Perry’s 1948 Underground Empire², chapter 10, page 98, and he credits (and names) Prof. Cook, his surveyor Loughran, and photographer Harry Cook.

THE LIGHTBULB MOMENT: The lightbulb went on over my head: The photographer is not taking pictures of himself! My palm hit my face.

And so, a five-minute Google search found James F. Loughran (1884-1954) on the history page of the New York Bridge Authority, here: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=164465

Loughran’s bio notes he was chairman of the state Bridge Authority from 1949 until his death. He was a civil engineering graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a master’s degree in highway engineering from Columbia University.

His bio confirms: “after a brief stint surveying caves for the New York Geologist’s office,” he was appointed Ulster County superintendent of Highways. Loughran held the job for 44 years and became “widely known as an expert on rural roads.”

Our “mystery caver” would have been 21 years old at time of Cook’s survey. There’s a photo of the older Loughran on the website, and although hard to reproduce, it is clearly one and the same man.

# # #

¹Specials thanks to Chuck Porter of Troy for his work with the Cook photos and invaluable help with this article. Porter and the late Jack Middleton saved the photos from Cook’s work from relative obscurity in the bowels of the NYS Museum and painstakingly reproduced them for the 21st Century. In the mid-1990s, Jack was working with the museum’s Geological Survey and had access to the original 4 x 5-inch glass plate negatives.

Writes Chuck: “Jack and I placed these glass plates on a light table at the museum and took close-up photos with 35mm SLR cameras held on tripods. Attempts to print from these closeups with film techniques at that time were very disappointing, but years later, digitally scanning the filmstrips—and then adjusting with Photoshop—made a huge difference. I processed 40 plates in all.”

²Not to be confused with my book, titled in homage, Underground Empires: (plural) Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure & Enterprise in NY’s Cave Country.

FDR’s 1930 CAVE VISIT SPARKS LIFETIME MEMORY FOR YOUNG BOY

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Town of Esperance Historian Ken Jones shares a story from his files from the Dale Family, whose father, retired USMC Major Frederick H. Dale, cherishes a boyhood memory of serving then-Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt an ice cream cone at a 1930 Farm Bureau picnic at Howe Caverns. Dale was 12 at the time.

Born in 1917 in Albany to the late Frederick Sheldon Dale, Jr. and Mildred (Hunter), the younger Dale spent his youth in Esperance with his mother and stepfather, William Montanye, and graduated Cobleskill High School in 1936.

Gov. Roosevelt drew a huge crowd to the August 22, 1930, Farm Bureau picnic in the Howe Caverns’ parking lot. Frederick—he often went by F. H.—got the job selling ice cream cones through his Aunt Blanche, then the Schoharie County Clerk, the first woman to hold the job, elected in 1919.

**The 1930 Farm Bureau Picnic at Howe Caverns. The guest speaker was then-governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. The lodge is in the background, left.**

Meeting the governor and future president became a lifetime memory for Major Dale. And while a career in the Marines took him around the world, he often returned to Esperance throughout his lifetime for the Memorial Day parade, and services at the church and cemetery.

Dale’s path crossed with FDR again. He was with the Marine Corps’ detachment that in April 1945, marched in the funeral procession through the nation’s Capital for the late President Roosevelt—the man the young Dale had sold an ice cream cone to 15 years earlier.

Dale enlisted in the Marines in February 1942 and participated in both the Guadalcanal and Bougainville Island campaigns, followed by a tour of duty in Japan as part of the Marine occupation force. Following WWII, Major Dale served briefly in Korea and later on an extended tour of duty in Vietnam.

Major Dale died in February 2009, in Charlotte, NC, predeceased by his wife Olga. His two sons, Thomas Hunter Dale and William Jessen Dale and their families live in Florida and North Carolina, respectively.

Major F. H. Dale is buried in the Esperance Cemetery.

Included in Esperance Historian Jones files on the Dale family was a transcript of the Aug. 23 news article on Gov. Roosevelt’s appearance at Howe Caverns. The article is attributed to a “special” correspondent. In this case, it was Virgil Clymer, then the general manager at the cave. Minor edits have been made for clarity.

From The Albany Evening News:

Aid to Farms Cited by Roosevelt

Governor at Howe Cavern Picnic Tells of Lower Taxation

Special to the Albany Evening News

COBLESKILL, Aug. 22 —The government of New York state is “farm minded,” Governor Roosevelt declared in an address before 5.000 farmers gathered yesterday at Howe Caverns for the fourteenth annual picnic of the Schoharie County Farm Bureau.

This attitude of the state government, he attributed in a large measure, [is due] to the study and work of the agricultural advisory committee appointed just prior to his inauguration.

Some political significance was given by Republican leaders to the Governor’s address by the presence of Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., a member the Governor’s Advisory Committee and Democratic candidate for the Schoharie seat in the Assembly. Mr. Van Wagenen introduced the Governor.

The Governor said that as the result of the committee’s work, the state no longer receives support from taxes on the farmer’s property. These go to local governments only.

“It is a simple but interesting fact that it was not until the appointment of by me of the Agricultural Advisory Committee before I was inaugurated that any definite study of farm conditions or any definite program of relief and improvement of existing conditions had been undertaken in a generation,” [said Roosevelt].

The committee found that the tax burden in this state bore unfairly and unequally on the farmer.

The result was recommendations by the Governor which the Legislature carried through under which the burden of farm taxes was reduced approximately $30,000,000 a year.

Another part of the program consists in increased appropriations by the state for what is best described as the functions of government in improving agricultural conditions.

During each of the past two years apportionment of appropriations to agricultural fairs has been increased from $250,000 to $375,000.

Special thanks to Esperance Historian Jones for his contribution to this Cave Country blog post.

MORE MONEY, MORE PROBLEMS

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The Klondike Quarry, three miles east of Cobleskill along the D&H Railroad line, was the largest of the Schoharie County quarries during the stone boom. It held a contract with the City of New York to provide stone for the foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge, a contract today worth more than $65 million. Run by the NYC-based Cobleskill Quarry Company, the Klondike employed nearly 500, many of them recent Italian immigrants.

**The abandoned Klondike Quarry on a Fall Day in 2022.**

The full story is told in Farming With Dynamite: The Forgotten Stone boom in Schoharie County, available here and at local bookstore.

We add to the remarkable story of the Klondike with two reports which appeared separately, yet on the same page of the May 18, 1898, Cobleskill Index. We can’t help but consider them somehow related. Let us know your thoughts on the deadly incident.

The first story, headlined simply, ‘Cobleskill Quarry Co.’ describes a NYC policy that created financial challenges for the Klondike and its employees:

“Mingled surprise and regrets were everywhere manifest Monday morning. when the Cobleskill Quarry Co. paid 378 hands and shut down the works.

“Eleven thousand dollars was paid. A state law prohibits any city from creating debt over a certain per cent of assessed valuation. There is a dispute among N Y. City officials as to whether or not the city has reached the debt limit, and as a consequence work on all public works has been suspended and 60,000 laborers are thrown out of employment.

“The Cobleskill Quarry Co. has the contract from the city for foundations for the East River bridge. They have received no money from the city for labor and material furnished in the past eight months, and their dues now, on contract, is said to be $250,000.00. Hence the “shut down” of the Cobleskill Quarry.

“The company, which now has the contract to furnish stone for the D&H, formerly supplied bv Reilly & Weiting, intends to run the quarry with about fifty hands, on smaller outside orders.

“The company says they may start at any time on full force—any time the entanglement in N. Y. City is unraveled.

“There are rumors that the company will be running within a few days with over 100 hands.

“Since putting the above in type it is stated that the Quarry Co. has received $200,000 on indebtedness from the City of New York.” (Italics added. – ed.)

The second item in that day’s paper was headlined “Injured by the Cars,” tells of a tragedy at the Cobleskill train depot that apparently followed a scuffle the day before with the Klondike’s paymaster. We can only guess the cause.

The paper reported:

“Yesterday noon an Italian, about 20 years of age, employed by the Cobleskill Quarry Co., attempted to catch on a freight going east, intending to go to Klondike.

“He swung under the cars and both legs were horribly injured. Dr. Frasier was quickly on hand, and he decided to send the man to the Albany Hospital, and he was placed on the next train east.

One and possibly both legs will have to be amputated above the knee. It is rumored that the young man had trouble at the quarry and drew a knife on the paymaster.

The name of the Italian is Guiseppe Ophallete of New York. The wheels passed over his left ankle, crushing the bones. There are two fractures, one below the knee and one at the hip, The right leg is badly crushed, He is bruised all over his body. There may be internal injuries.

(Editor’s Note; In the same issue, the paper later reports Mr. Ophallete died of his injuries.)

HOWE FAMILY COLLECTION GIVEN TO MUSEUM

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Fossil Collection, Gift to Museum, Goes on Display

SCHOHARIE, June 19, 1936—An outstanding fossil display including the first formations ever to have been taken from Howe Caverns, have come to Schoharie for display at the Old Stone Fort Museum on North Main Street for inspection by the thousands from every state of the Union who annually visit this historic shrine.

The collection is the gift to the museum by Mrs. M. J. Miller of Baltimore, Md., a great granddaughter of Lester Howe, who discovered the caverns in May 1842.

The formations were taken from the caverns in several successive years, during which they were exploited and conditioned by Howe, who made a private collection, which has remained in the Howe family until this time.

Mrs. Miller is one of the last survivors of the Howe clan.

Among the outstanding specimens of the collection, placed in charge of Chauncy Rickard, curator of the museum, are the fossil remains of a Trilobite, the creature in which the first eye was said to have been developed and which existed in the ancient Silurian sea.

Included also are beautiful specimens of calcite crystal formed of countless transparent pyramids and regarded as being 150 million years old.

—From the June 20, 1936, Schenectady Gazette, likely submitted by Chauncy Rickard, curator of the Stone Fort Museum.

WHAT’S ON DISPLAY AT THE FORT

The display case containing the Howe exhibit is in the northeastern corner of the second floor of the Stone Fort Museum. It contains the calcium carbonate “brain” coral shown here, a few cave formations and invitations to two events at the cave.

**Brain Coral from Lester Howe’s collection at the Old Stone Fort Museum**

The first, headlined “Schoharie Cave Party,” invites a gentleman and lady guest to a New Year’s Day, 1845 “Cotilion Party” at Lester Howe’s Assembly Room, starting at 2 p.m. Cotilions are typically a southern affair meant to introduce young ladies to both society and eligible young men. Howe’s daughters, Huldah and Harriet, were pre-teens in 1845, so perhaps the word was used differently in that era.

The invitation begins with an odd quote: “Live while we live the managers say and sport the pleasures of the present day.” Fourteen “managers”—all of them local men—are listed.

In the 19^th Century, most entertaining was done at home. An “Assembly Room” in a home was the gathering place for members of the higher social classes, and open to both men and women.

The second invitation is to a “House Warming (sic),” to be held Thursday, Sept. 5, 1849, at the Cave House. Other than noting “Good music will be furnished,” there are few other details. History records Howe as a violinist; his daughters played the piano.

This may have been to show to visitors the second Cave House. The first was destroyed by fire in 1847.

THE PROVENANCE: Following Lester Howe’s death in 1888, the collection was first held by the Howes’ son, Dr. Halsey John Howe, a dentist practicing in Dunkirk in western New York. It was displayed in a local library for several years, according to the Stone Fort’s records. Halsey and his wife were childless, and the collection then went to one of the Howes’ grandchildren.

The description in the display case does not match what was written for the newspaper by Curator Rickard. The exhibit notes Frances Miller of Chevy Chase, Md., donated the collection given her by Dr. Howe to the fort in 1936. Miller was the daughter of Harriet Elgiva Howe Shipman.

SCHOOL RECESS? LET’S GO CAVING!

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**Artwork from a 1920s brochure on the caves of Schoharie County depicts a big-city artist’s bias. The young explorers are barefoot and their sleeves are rolled up in the 50-degree cave!**

Field trips to Howe Caverns for students of all ages, and from around the region, are common in the last few weeks before summer vacation. There were no such luxuries for children attending any of the one-room schoolhouses more than a century ago – unless you lived in the Cave Country.

In my book, “Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure & Enterprise in NY’s Cave County,” I suggested the rural, sparsely populated Sagendorf Corners hamlet was the nexus of NY’s Cave Country.

Near the hamlet’s old one-room schoolhouse, “there are quite a large number of rock holes¹,” reported the Greene County Windham Journal on Sept. 18, 1876. “. . in which the children often play at noon and recess.”

The article headlined, “Schoharie County: Its Cavernous Character,” was picked up from The Albany Argus and gave a good description of the known caves of that period.

While it didn’t identify which caves Sagendorf Corners school children spent their recess or lunch breaks in, there are several they could have chosen from, including one that later became Secret Caverns. Others nearby were later found to connect to Howe’s Cave, nearly an underground mile away.

¹The author likely means “sinkhole.” A “rock hole,” as any farmer in the cave country can tell you, is a sinkhole where rocks unearthed during plowing are thrown.

TWO DIE IN 1872 CAVE HOUSE FIRE

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Two employees of the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad died in the Jan. 18, 1872, fire that destroyed the Cave House hotel at Howe’s Cave. A newspaper the following week suggested it may have been caused by an “incendiary”– the imprecise term meaning something—or someone—ignited combustible materials in the basement of the hotel.

At the time, the Cave House was one of the few remnants of the Howe family’s underground empire built around their patriarch’s 1842 discovery.

This Cave House was the second hotel that the Howes—Lester, Lucinda and their children Huldah, Harriet, and Halsey—opened to welcome visitors to the cave Lester made famous. The first hotel, built as early as 1843, was also destroyed by fire in 1847.

The second Cave House was a plain, three-story wooden building with about 40 rooms, unadorned with porches, columns, or other fashionable Victorian-era home décor. Built over the entrance to the cave, guests readied in the basement for their day-long underground adventure. There, they donned well-worn clothes, hats, and boots, and were provided with oil lanterns. From there, they entered the cave.

A photo, taken some time between 1865-1872, entitled “Scenes from The Albany and Susquehanna Railroad,” shows the hotel in desperate need of painting. In fact, it looks as if half of the building’s paint had been scraped to prepare it for a new coat.

At the time of the fire, the Cave House was owned by the Howes Cave Association. The Howes sold the property as early as 1869 to the association, created by Joseph H. Ramsey, the president of the Albany & Susquehanna. History records Ramsey’s purchase of the property as being of dubious ethics; Howe accepted stock in the new association valued (by Ramsey) at $12,000 after rejecting a $10,000 cash offer.

The blaze must have been a frightening affair. According to the Jan. 27, 1872, Cobleskill Index, the proprietor, a Mr. Eldredge, was awakened in his room around 1 a.m. by smoke so dense he was “obligated to escape through a window.”

There were 10 employees of the railroad staying at the hotel while they constructed a water tank at the Howes Cave Depot, just a short distance from the cave and hotel. All were in their rooms at the time the fire broke out.

After Eldredge sounded the alarm, all but two of the men made their escape through their windows, the Cobleskill Index noting “leaving behind most if not all of their clothing.”

**Construction of the third Cave House, above, began after the fire and used limestone from the Howes Cave Association’s quarry. It still stands.**

Killed in the fire were Edward Kelly, a mason from Albany and D. W. Hare, a carpenter from Richmondville. The charred remains of the two men were found the next morning in the ruins.

According to the Index, the fire “is supposed to have originated in the oil room at the entrance to the cave, in the basement of the building, and is supposed to have been the work of an incendiary.” No other details were provided.

The Cave House was valued at $5,000, the paper reported, or about $118,000 today. There was insurance on the building for about one-half of that. Eldrege lost about $7,000 in personal property but was fully insured.

Finally, said the Index, “We learn that a new building is to be erected immediately.”

The third Cave House, built of limestone from the expanding Howes Cave Association’s adjacent quarry, still stands, despite going through numerous renovations and owners. Today, it is a museum-in-the-making, The Cave House Museum of Mining and Geology.

Special thanks to Kevin Berner, a vice-president of the museum, for finding and sharing this gem from the old news reports. Have something to contribute? Contact me here.

SCHOHARIE’S CAVE WITH THE TAPIR TOOTH

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By CHARLES J. HANOR, National Speleological Society

Without a doubt, one of the prettiest and wilder caves of Schoharie County is Clark’s Cave or Veen Fliet’s Cavern. It is owned by Richard Veen Fliet and has been in his hands since he and friends started exploration and opening during the early 1930s.

During this time, Mr. Veen Fliet found the tooth of a tapir and several newspaper accounts were published. It was one of the most amazing finds of the century. Mr. Veen Fliet has the tooth and several other interesting pieces of formation from the cave at his home. The newspaper articles are also in his hands. His home is the old Gebhard estate on the west side of Schoharie bridge.

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An interesting by-line, not pertaining to caves, is the most unusual and fine collection of fossils rock and mineral specimens, and Indian relics, all from the vicinity of Schoharie county, that I have ever been permitted to see. This collection is by far, better than any in New York state museum that deals with the geological and paleontological eras of the county. Mr. Veen Fliet goes out of his way to explain and tell the visitor the history of each and every specimen. This collection should be labeled and on file so that in the future it is not broken up or separated but kept in the fine state that it now is.

Our attention was directed to Veen Fliet’s cavern by John Wilbur, now residing in Chatham. We arrived at the home of Mr. Veen Fliet and upon asking about the existence of a cavern were welcomed and personally conducted to the entrance. Mr. Veen Fliet has not been into the far extent of the cavern for a number of years.

The entrance to the cavern is in a small, wooded gully that empties into the Schoharie river. Through years of work and efforts by Mr. Veen Fliet and his group a walking entrance has been blasted out of solid limestone. Armed with equipment and mapping facilities we started our journey into another underground paradise. The first 151 [feet] follows the natural stream bed that flows from the entrance. This passage is of typical New York state cave variety. Here the water has found the most soluble rock and for past ages has worn a walkable passage into a mountain of solid limestone.

At the far end of the walkable passage a real obstacle is encountered. The height of the passage lowers to about 2.5 feet and water covers the floor for as far as the eye can see. This is the lake. At this point the explorer must lie on his stomach and crawl along with his head and shoulders above water for a distance of 30 feet. Suddenly the passage opens cup again where the explorer can walk upright with plenty of room.

The first sign of formation is now to the right of the explorer. Here a small alcove of pin stalactites, 3 to 10 inches in length, white as alabaster, coral shaped and lacy are found and directly opposite this alcove is a beautiful bank of blue-grey flowstone. The base of this bank flows out into the floor of the main passage like a huge river of molten lava. At the top of this mass is a small column, stretching upward until it joins the ceiling. Continuing on the explorer can hear the sound of splashing water. Two bends are made in the passage and two rooms are penetrated when at last one finds himself standing in a large size room.

The walls of this room are coated with flowstone of all hues. Beehives and frozen cascades of every description, and the most amazing sight of all, a waterfall pouring out of a passage at a level 10 ft. higher than that on which the explorer is standing. Directly in the center of this waterfall and hanging from the upper level is one of the most amazing formations I have ever seen. It is a huge heart, complete with both sections. As the beamsfrom our light shone on this formation the colors shone with all their grandeur. We immediately named this formation “The Bleeding Heart” because the water from the falls splashed onto this formation and then gracefully dropped to the floor of the cavern.

It was not an easy matter to scale this waterfall in order to negotiate the upper level. After 15 minutes of boosting and standing on the shoulders of our companions we were all setting in the passage directly over the falls. The water from the falls did not dampen our spirits as they had already taken a solid dunking when we crawled through the lake. I will say that we were very cold and our speech was rather shaky when we conversed with each other.

The passage went on and after a short distance a branch passage came into the main from the left. Two of our party entered this and shortly word came back that a huge stalactite came down to almost five inches of the floor blocking their entrance. The smaller of the group squeezed under this obstacle and entered another small room. Here nature really went to work. Stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone and the very rare formation called “Tripe” was seen. This cave tripe has been found in only one other cave in New York state, Howe Caverns. Probably most of the readers will be familiar with this formation. Further exploration of this passage is impossible as it is what cavers called a passage killed by formations.

Continuing on in the main passage the explorers found themselves in a long slender fault. Over their heads, under their feet, and on both sides of them was formation upon formation. After 200 feet of walking and crawling through narrow passage way the remainder of the path was water. Philip Johnson, one of the slimmest of our party entered this water passage. Soon he disappeared from sight and I shouted to him what lay ahead.

His response came back that he was in a passage about the same width as when he started but that he was standing about knee deep in cave mud beneath the water. There was a huge formation that had dropped from the ceiling or that someone had tried to remove. This was a flow-stone block resembling an organ. He said it was very beautiful. After climbing over this obstacle the passage widened somewhat and made a right angle run. Going on Johnson made three more right angle turns. I again called frantically to him. My words came back in echoes. Three times I shouted and finally a voice was heard coming back to me from far away. After about 15 minutes of shouting we were able to understand each other. As Johnson had no companion with him I advised him to return to where I had remained. I knew he had gotten into something very interesting as I could hear him cussing me off for making him come back.

When I finally saw his light through the darkness, I breathed normal again as cave exploring alone has very dangerous possibilities. When he joined me he told that he had gotten through the toughest part of the passage and that when I called he had started into a larger part of the passage for parts unknown. It continued on for as far as his beam would carry with a stream running towards him. He reported the same beautiful formation lined passage all the way.

As we were thoroughly soaked we started our return trip to the entrance knowing we had to crawl through the lake again. We started out but to our amazement when we reached the lake we couldn’t get through. There was only three inches of air space. Our thought went back to Floyd Collins and we wondered where our companions were and how they had gotten out.

Neither of us was alarmed and we started checking the floor and walls of the passage. Soon it became evident that we had never been in this part of the cave before.

We had found a new lake. Retracing our steps we suddenly came to a right hand passage of considerable width and height. We took this and then sighted the first formations that I described earlier. Next came the lake leading to the entrance. After getting out we told our companions our mistake and found that they also had fate play the same trick to them.

Mr. Veen Fliet has a beautiful cavern and the farthest extent has as yet been unseen and undiscovered. We hope to make a complete study of this cavern. It is our belief that this cavern will eventually be penetrated until it joins the famed Sitzer’s cavern at Central Bridge. It has been reported in the county that Tim Murphy and some of Morgan’s riflemen used an extensive cavern on Terrace mountain to baffle the Schoharie Indians during the Revolution. They were called the ghost men as Indians following their trail would come to the mouth of a cavern, where they were afraid to follow, and after a short length of time the same Indians would be surprised to find themselves in an ambush by Murphy and his scouts. They just appeared from nowhere.

If Veen Fliets cavern can be connected with Lasell hell-hole, Strontium Mine cave, and Sitzer’s cavern approximately seven miles of underground passageway will be discovered. At present writing neither of these caverns has been explored to the farthest extent. It is hard work and the nerves of a cave explorer must have their rest also. This particular area will again be very active the latter part of ’49 and the early part of 1950.

This article was originally published in Albany County Post 9 Sept. 1949

MEMORIES OF A CAVE COUNTRY BOYHOOD

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Editor’s Note: Jim Muller spent his formative years in the heart of NY’s Cave Country. Born in 1953, he grew up on his family’s dairy farm adjacent to the Howe Caverns estate and its well-manicured quarter-mile drive up the hill to its picturesque lodge overlooking the valley to the west.

Like other kids in the Howes Cave area, the cave’s history and tales of the lost Garden of Eden cave became part of their school-age play. Jim knew there were plenty of other caves in the area as well and explored several while attending Schoharie Central High School.

Jim lived adjacent to Howe Caverns during its heyday as a tourist attraction, when more than 2,000 visitors (often more) came daily during the summer months. Then open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. a steady stream of vehicles wound along the two-lane road from the main highway, past the Muller farm and up the hill to the cave entrance. (Jim wasn’t allowed to learn to ride a bike until into his late teens; his mother fearful of the out-of-town traffic.)

Dave Reynolds and Jim Muller riding “Nip” and “Tuck” in this slightly blurry photo from 1961. The photo at the top of the page is 13-year-old Jim atop “Duke,” at right. At left is an unidentified college friend of Jim’s older sister, seated on “Tuck” – during her first visit to a farm and to ride a horse.

Fortunately for the reader, Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure, and Enterprise in NY’s Cave Country brought back many fond memories for Jim, and he shared them with the author.

By JIM MULLER (From jimmuller.com, Oct. 29, 2021)

I just finished reading Underground Empires about Howe Caverns and I have enjoyed it immensely. I don’t know if the feeling of nostalgia is due to my recent 50th year Schoharie Central High School reunion or that I could relate to so many of the people and places described in the book.

It has been a splendid read and I wrote a letter to the author. Dana Cudmore, who was a year behind me at Schoharie Central and worked as a guide at Howe Caverns with my brother Robert. I wrote a letter to Dana about all my memories which Dana labelled as a “Cave Country Boyhood.”

From the early 1950s until the mid-1960s my family owned a dairy farm which abutted Howe Caverns’ property. Surrounding our farm was land owned by the Nethaway, VanNatten and Sagendorf families. As a pre-teen I drove a team of horses for the Nethaways; I learned to ice skate on Jimmy VanNatten’s pond, My sister Barbara was (and still is) best friends with Hope Sagendorf, and my other sister Jeanne, attended school prom with John Sagendorf.

My dad used to cut hay from Howe Caverns’ land. Each Spring, when my father would till new fields, we would pick rock and joke that moving the really big ones would lead us to the lost Garden of Eden cave. In 1958, the Caverns made a promotional film which used some of our family farm and four cows. [I have an old picture that] shows an actor and cameraman setting up along a stone fence line for some “farmer wisdom” describing the 1842 discovery of Howe’s Cave.

Locally, us kids had a horse posse that included Bobby Beavers, Joyce Nethaway, Hope Sagendorf and occasionally Carolyn Rehberg. When my ponies escaped, we would frequently find them at the Caverns. mooching treats and affection from the tourists. One of the reasons I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was 18 was due to proximity to Howe Caverns. With no shoulders along the country roads, my parents were certain if I was riding a bike I would get hit by a tourist. So, from age 5 on they entrusted my fate to “Nip,” my pony. I guess they figured his sense of self-preservation would extend to me as well.

My parents played cards with ‘Bud’ Tillison, owner of the Luncheonette and Grocery Store in the Howes Cave hamlet. I recall it only having three small tables. I remember Bud giving me ice cream while he and my dad visited and as a youngster, I felt it couldn’t get any better. Carolyn (Rehberg) Schlegel says she could recall that Bud designated a spot to tie a horse while the kids went into the store to buy a treat.

I see Carolyn often, playing senior’s volleyball and was telling her of Dana’s Underground Empires. The Rehberg family was active in Yo-Sco-Haro Riding Club and served as 4-H leaders, The Rehberg farm was located at (or near) the site of Lester Howe’s farm and the suspected Garden of Eden. Carolyn relayed a story told by her father Albert (Al), that when blasting was done for I-88, one of the blasts sounded a different ‘thump’ associated with settling earth. [Could it have been collapsing into a large cave? – ed.]

When I was 13 my family sold the farm to Lester Hay and built a house across the Schoharie Creek from Terrace Mountain. Bill Dodge, the Schoharie biology teacher, sponsored our informal outing club, –the Schoharie Pit-Plunging and Cliff-Climbing Club. We undertook activities on Terrace Mountain and Partridge Run and canoed Schoharie Creek and raced canoes on the Susquehanna.

Lester Hay later married my sister, Jeanne and fathered Mark and Matthew Hay who worked as tour guides at the caverns. In fact, many of us worked at the cavern. My sisters, Barbara and Jeanne worked at the snack bar. My cousin Karen Muller worked there as well. It was during my sophomore year in high school that I joined the largest guides’ class ever assembled at the caverns and was trained by Don Reynolds.

As a junior and senior (SCS Class of 1971) I went caving with Bill Dodge and other friends, exploring Ball’s, Knox, Veen Fliet’s, Spider, Benson, and Przysiecki caves.

Somewhere in the late 1970s my brother Robert, father Clifford and brother-in-law Lester Hay salvaged an engine and winch which was used to clear the sinkhole known as the “Sinks by the Sugarbush.” Fifty-gallon drums, punctured to allow water to drain, were lowered for men and gear as well as to pull out the collapsed rock as they tried to clean it out. We were always told they found some of Lester Howe’s items in a grotto near or at the sink. We believe the engine and winch that were there dated back to late 20s or early ’30s as the engine was a ’20s vintage. It was a six horsepower “Novo” with a capstan for rope and drum for cable.

Underground Empires has been a real joy to read. I feel blessed that I was able to grow up in the prosperous heydays of Howe Caverns and the book enabled many pleasant memories for me.

Jim Muller retired in 2021 after careers in GIS management and in information technology systems and management. He holds a bachelor’s degree in geography from SUNY Oneonta and a master’s degree in planning from the University of Washington in Seattle.

He and his wife, Kathryn, raised three children and reside in Holland Patent, New York, just outside the boundaries of the Adirondack Park. They have three grandchildren.

Jim has several lifelong interests and now shares them with his family. They include “back country” canoeing, winter camping, and raising Quarter horses. He also enjoys basketball, volleyball, and pickleball.

THE FINAL YEARS OF LESTER & LUCINDA HOWE

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Until the late Spring of 1888, an aging Lester Howe and wife Lucinda lived on his beloved “Garden of Eden” property across the valley of the Cobleskill Creek from the cave he made famous. Their children, all of whom had been married in the family’s cave, had moved on.

Huldah Ann, the oldest, became Mrs. Henry Northrup, and Harriet Elgiva married a surveyor for the railroad, Hiram Dewey. Both daughters moved to Jefferson City in central Missouri and raised families there. The Howes’ son, Halsey John, married Julia Redfield, and moved to Dunkirk in western New York, where he practiced dentistry.

The date Howe sold his interest in the cave is uncertain; it may have been as early as April 1869.

Howe would have been 59 at the time—a suitable age for retirement in that era—and he and Lucinda settled into the lush Garden of Eden property¹ to spend their final years together. Now retired, he assumed the role of a “gentleman farmer,” raising a few Jersey cows and experimenting with the types of fruits (some exotic to the area) that he could raise on the hillside.

**Another view of the Howe Family plot in the Cobleskill Rural Cemetery. The marker front right, is Lester’s, next is Lucinda’s.**

It may have been an idyllic lifestyle for several years, but maintaining a farm, even a gentleman’s farm, is a challenge for men and women in their 60s and 70s. In early 1888, the Howes sold property after about 15 years there and moved to Florence Street in the Village of Cobleskill in mid-May 1888. Lester was 78; his wife was two years older. (Their Florence Street home is today the southwestern-most parcel on the block.)

Lester Howe died there on Wednesday July 18, 1888. According to his obituary in the July 19 Cobleskill Index, he suffered “five weeks of paralysis,” apparently the result of a stroke.

Howe’s obituary was succinct. After all, it was nearly a half-century since his famous discovery and his years of some celebrity and news-making were long past.

The Cobleskill paper’s obituary, in part, reads: “Lester Howe is widely known as the person who discovered Howe’s Cave. A strong current of air was known to issue from the mountainside where in 1840, Lester Howe moved to the vicinity of the cave.

**Lester Howe**
Jan. 10, 1810 – July 18, 1888

“Alone, he made investigations and with patient toil—prompted by courage—he affected an entrance into the bowels of the earth and penetrated a great distance or until he reached the lake.

“The [now] deceased erected a hotel at the mouth of the cave and opened the underground cavern to the world. . .

“The discovery of the cave which bears his name fixes Mr. Howe’s name indelibly in our local history,” the writer predicted, accurately.

The funeral service was “solemnized” at the Florence Street home, two days after Howe’s death, on Friday July 20, with a Rev. Buckelew officiating.

Lester Howe’s moment in the spotlight had passed, but his death still made the news. Small notices appeared in many newspapers across the country, including even those on the West Coast. His obituary has been found in papers in both Sacramento, Calif., and in Oregon.

About two months after Lester’s death, his widow Lucinda transferred three pieces of property from her husband’s estate to their son, Halsey. Legally, she may have had to transfer them first through an attorney; a “property transfers” section in the Aug. 8, 1888, Cobleskill Index, gives some details.

For “a nominal consideration,” Mrs. Howe transferred to John H. Shultes 45 acres in the Town of Cobleskill, likely the East Cobleskill/Garden of Eden property; one acre in Cobleskill, possibly the Florence Street home; and two acres in Howes Cave. Shultes then transferred the property to Halsey John Howe.

Lucinda Howe died a little more than a year later at a daughter’s home in Jefferson City, on Dec 18, 1889. She was 81.

The Fredonia Censor, a Chautauqua County newspaper in western New York, carried a small notice, probably placed by her son.

The Christmas Day, 1889 paper carried this: “Mrs. Lucinda Howe, mother of Dr. H. J. Howe of Dunkirk, who recently died in Jefferson [City], Mo²., was the wife of the discoverer of the wonderful Howe’s cave in Schoharie County, and her daughters were married in a part of the cave called the chapel. Her remains will be taken to Cobleskill for interment.”

Lester and Lucinda were married for 60 years. She was born April 28, 1808, in Albany, to Elijah Rowley, 32, and Sally Morgan Rowley, 33. She and Lester were married on Nov. 10, 1828, in Cherry Valley, Otsego County.

Lester and Lucinda, along with Halsey John Howe and his wife, Julia, are buried in the Cobleskill Rural Cemetery. Huldah Howe Northrup is buried in Pittsfield, IL; Harriet Howe Dewey is buried in Jefferson City.

PHOTO of the Howe monument in the Cobleskill Rural Cemetery by Bob Holt

# # #

¹The address would have been considered East Cobleskill.

² Halsey John Howe also moved to Jefferson City after retiring. He apparently suffered from Alzheimer’s—unrecognized at that time—and in late June 1913, Halsey walked away from his nephew’s house where he’d been staying. He was found drowned a few days later in the Missouri River there.

Posted: Oct. 10, 2023

MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING

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How Two Early Show Cave Promoters Pitched Potential Investors

Two of Schoharie County’s hardest-working cave entrepreneurs had bigger dreams than they were able to realize in the early days of the area’s show cave boom.

**SHhhhhh, , , ,It’s a Secret! The Elves promoted Secret Caverns in the 1930s on billboards and in brochures. There were three caves open to the public until the 1950s, and compeition was tough.**

Roger H. Mallery, Sr., the owner of Secret Caverns, and Delevan Clarke—”D.C.” or “Dellie” — Robinson, owner of Knox Cave, both boldly announced plans that, if brought to fruition, would have changed forever the business of touring caves in upstate New York.

Competition was tough. They faced Howe Caverns, famous for almost a century, and a bigger, more decorative cave, run by a well-heeled corporation with a big advertising budget.

The opening of Secret Caverns in August 1929 (late in the tourist season) wasn’t greeted with a lot of fanfare. About 100 people toured the cave, most likely family, and friends of the owner.

Mallery’s operating budget for Secret Caverns for the following season was probably as strained as any first-year business. Undaunted, he wrote “In spite of the fact that lack of capital has permitted little advertising, ground improvements, building construction, or conveniences for public comfort, Secret Caverns were visited during the season of 1930 by several thousands of people who were astonished to find that there existed in this section of the county such a truly merited natural wonder.”

That was the opening pitch in a sizeable ad that ran in January 1931 to announce the sale of $200,000 worth of stock in Secret Caverns. The ad ran several times in the Schoharie Republican and Cobleskill Index, the two local weekly newspapers.

In comparison, Howe Caverns, Inc. (in which Mallery owned about five percent of the stock) was capitalized at $225,000.

Mallery offered 5,000 shares of stock in Secret Caverns to raise funds for ambitious plans that included:

**ROGER MALLERY,** Developer of Secret Caverns

Opening “recently-discovered, large, beautiful chambers”
Creating a second entrance at the end of the cave, “so that several thousands of people can be handled orderly and efficiently each day”
Enlarging and completing the entrance lodge, including a “large new pavilion.” (An artist’s sketch of the “Cavern Cabin” is included in a 1930 brochure.)
Landscaping the grounds to “made as attractive as possible.”

“But by far the biggest undertaking,” Mallery continued, “will be an advertising campaign handled by experts that is certain to attract many tens of thousands of visitors annually.”

It is easy to admire some of the bravado of a show cave showman. Mallery adds: “It was the general opinion among those familiar with the more important caverns of the country, that Secret Caverns is without exception one of the finest and most interesting attractions of its kind in the north.

Then humbly, and without mentioning the competition by name, Mallery closes the pitch: “We have faith in and believe that the people of this community are broadminded and big enough to give their support to more than one of their caverns, providing they are satisfied that it is worthy.”

History doesn’t publicly record how well stock in Secret Caverns sold. The cave today is still a Mallery-family company, now it its third generation.

Mallery also tried to open Schoharie Caverns, off Shutters Corners Road between Schoharie and Gallupville. He announced the opening in September 1935, but a severe storm and flooding closed the cave almost immediately after and the project was abandoned. The story is told in my book, “Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure, and Enterprise in NY’s Cave Country.”

Gambler Wanted

“Wanted – A Gambler,” announced Dellie Robinson in late January 1947 in the Cobleskill Index.

Robinson had run Knox Cave nearby in Albany County for the dozen years prior and must have felt it was time to expand his empire. He too had his eyes on Schoharie Caverns.

/A young **DELEVAN CLARKE ROBINSON**, developer of Knox Cave, Albany County

Robinson started by convincing the owner to sell the cave, cave [surface] rights and 20 surrounding acres. The owners (likely the Cook Family at that time), agreed to the sale for $3,500 cash. That’s about $46,500 today.

“I have studied this cave and its floods for 17 years and believe that I can develop it.” Robinson’s ad read.

He described the deal: “I will give any person, or group, who will buy and own and permit me to develop and operate, a royalty of 10 cents each on the first 100,000 admissions,” adding a caveat: “if they will agree to deed the property to me when they receive the $10,000 [the total of royalties on 100,000 admissions] in full.”

In exchange, Robinson would develop the cave, and pay all operating and advertising costs. He didn’t provide an estimate of what those costs might be.

Royalties would be paid monthly, Robinson stipulated, and closed, “Your only gamble is in time it takes to draw 100,000 paid admissions to that cave.”

Robinson never found his gambler. About eight years later Attorney James Gage purchased the well-known wild cave, developed it, and may have opened it in July 1958. It closed almost immediately. That story is also told in “Underground Empires.”

Today the property is the Schoharie Caverns Nature Preserve of the National Speleological Society.”

POSTED SEPT. 29, 2023

HOWE’S CAVE & THE RAILROAD

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In 1865, the A & S Brought Change —for Better or Worse

“It chanced that the writer, while in a half somnolent condition, induced by a long night’s ride in a railroad car, overheard snatches of conversation which ran somewhat thus:

‘Yes sir: three miles right into the bowels of the earth—nothing like it in the whole country, sir, aside from Mammoth Cave.’

‘Pooh! A mere dripping crevice in the rocks, I presume, or a dirty hole in the ground.’

‘No sir, wide and high, with waterfalls, galleries, and halls for three miles and the end not reached yet’.”

While the account above is imagined, taken from an old advertising pamphlet¹, the conversation is probably not unlike other idle chit-chat that took place among passengers on the railroads of New York in the second half of the 19^th century.

**The Albany & Susquehanna Railroad, from the Hudson River at Albany to Binghamton.**

The cave in the conversation is Howe’s Cave, long promoted in that era as a rival of Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. The train was certainly the Albany and Susquehanna, the Albany-to-Binghamton line that first reached the tiny community adjacent to the cave in 1865.

Things were never the same after that. The histories of the cave and the railroad are inextricably, and forever, linked.

The cave Lester Howe discovered in 1842 was a popular, well-known destination decades before the A&S arrived. The cave, one of the few opened to visitors at that time, attracted guests—mostly educated and well-to-do—who were thrilled by the novel, muddy, daylong underground adventure by torchlight. At the cave entrance, Howe built his “Cave House,” a rather plain three-story hotel of about 26 rooms. Guests were attended to by the Howe family: Lester and his wife, Lucinda; daughters Huldah and Harriet, and son Halsey, the youngest.

Construction of the A&S began on April 19, 1851, from what is today downtown Albany (near Pearl Street) to Schoharie Junction². This initial effort, a 35-mile stretch along a mostly flat grade, took the train south, then west through communities that are today, Delmar, Slingerlands, and New Scotland before heading south-westerly along a gradual, miles-long easy bend towards the picturesque Schoharie Valley.

Surveyors spread out through the countryside west and southwest of Albany to plot a rail line that served communities, manufacturers, farms, and travel destinations along the route that, of necessity for the steam locomotives that pulled the train, had to be over relatively level ground.

Marking their route along the picturesque valley carved by the Cobleskill Creek, the surveying team likely stayed at the Howe family’s Cave House. They would have made note of the limestone hillside and documented the limestone outcroppings that would need to be removed from the proposed route of the train.

And at least one A&S surveyor made note of Lester Howe’s teenage daughter, Harriet.

Hiram Shipman Dewey won the heart of 18-year-old Harriet Elgiva Howe, described by an heir as “small and retiring with blue eyes and (an) abundance of light brown hair.” Hiram, then in his mid-20s, was described as a good-looking, fun-loving young man, six feet tall, with dark brown hair and blue eyes.

Hiram and Harriet were married in the Bridal Chamber of the Howe family’s cave on Sept. 11, 1854 (There were several weddings in the cave around that time; they made for great publicity). Later settling in Jefferson City, Mo., the couple had five children.

As money was raised, the rail line moved forward west from Albany. It took 12 years to complete the first phase of the A&S, the line reaching Schoharie Junction in 1863. Three years later, a separate 4.2-mile line, the Schoharie Valley Railroad, connected Schoharie village to the A&S at Schoharie Junction.

There was a change of management of the A&S in 1863 as well. Joseph H. Ramsey, a state senator from Lawyersville, Schoharie County, was named president of the railroad. He had been the railroad board’s vice president since 1856 and was instrumental in raising cash and selling railroad bonds.

Continuing west from Schoharie Junction, the lowest spot on the line was the crossing of Schoharie Creek at Central Bridge. As the line climbed out of the valley, the tracks followed the north bank of Cobleskill Creek up to a point around West Richmondville, and then started a down grade that continued to Oneonta and beyond.

An uphill grade and sharp curve are an unwanted combination in railroad construction, not always avoided. One railroad afficianado³ explained: “If you were going to stall a train on the A&S line, it would either happen at Howes Cave or behind (north) of what’s now the Cobleskill-Richmondville High School on Route 7 west of Warnerville. That’s where the combination of grade and curvature are the worst.” Accidents at both locations have proved the point.

On an 1854 map intended to show the relation of the A&S with other trains in New York at that time, Howes Cave is not marked. There were manufacturing concerns in Central Bridge and Cobleskill worthy of a depot for freight and passengers. While the cave and Cave House were well-known, there just wasn’t much else there.

But that would soon change. The railroad’s progress was closely watched by its stockholders, property owners along the line, and investors looking to profit from the train’s arrival. Speculators saw potential in the limestone that had been exposed around the cave; samples of it found their way to the office of the state geologist in Albany. After testing, it was found comparable to the limestone in Rosendale, Ulster County, that was then being used to profitably make natural cement.

It was not by coincidence that three members of the Albany & Susquehanna’s board of directors were the first to learn of the money-making opportunity from Howes Cave limestone. (This would have been before 1863, as plans were being made for the second half of the A&S, from Central Bridge/Schoharie Junction to Binghamton.)

Construction of a depot in Howes Cave began in 1864, it opened the following year. It would be needed to ship stone and cement—should such an enterprise be created nearby.

Richmondville Town Justice John Westover—later founder of the Band of Richmondville—and Jared Goodyear of Oneonta both sat on the A&S board. Along with two others from Otsego County, they were the first to profit from the natural resources around the rail line near the cave. They formed the Howes Cave Lime and Cement Company in 1867.

Two years later, on Dec. 31, 1868, the A&S line’s 142 miles to Binghamton were completed and a gala excursion train from Albany officially opened the new railroad on Jan. 12, 1869⁴.

And later that year, A&S President Ramsey created the second company to exploit the limestone of Howes Cave. His plans for the Howes Cave Association included much more than just making cement.

Ramsey eventually took control of the famous cave itself, in a transaction that history records as being of dubious ethics. The date (it’s not definitive) may have been as early as April 1869 and the exact method is not clear, but Howe accepted $12,000 of stock in the Howes Cave Association after turning down a $10,000 cash offer. Ramsey had declared the Association’s stock to be worth $100,000 – a meaningless amount to everyone but Howe, who became a minority shareholder with little to say about company affairs.

Regardless, Ramsey added to the property, and expanded both the quarry and the caverns’ tour business. In 1872-73, he completed a new version of the Cave House, made of limestone from his quarry. To that, he added the huge, three-story Pavilion Hotel, completed in 1881, envisioned as a summer resort with amenities to rival those of the famous Catskills’ resorts of that era. The imaginary conversation that leads this article was taken from the Pavilion Hotel’s advertising material.

The Pavilion Hotel was destroyed by fire in February 1900.

Working together in 1866, the A&S and Delaware & Hudson extended the A&S rails south of Binghamton to the Pennsylvania rail lines freighting coal. Then, in February 1870. the D&H perpetually leased the A&S for $490,000 per year. Passengers and others continued using “Albany & Susquehanna” as the line’s name for many years.

While interest in the cave waned in the early 1900s, the quarry business boomed. Historical photos from the early-to mid-20^th century show six or more railroad sidings going into the cement works, and old news articles document from 15 to 20 freight cars being loaded with barrels and bags of cement each day. With each car having a capacity of from 160 to 300 barrels, each weighing about 365 pounds, a fully loaded freight car would have been carrying 55 tons of Howes Cave cement.

In about 1910, new owners of the cement quarry accidentally blasted into Howe’s Cave, eventually destroying about three hundred feet of it. The cave was closed for nearly 20 years after that. New owners, Howe Caverns, Inc. opened in 1929.

Lester Howe died in 1888. Railroad President Joseph H. Ramsey died in 1894, and the train freight shipped to and from the Howes Cave quarry declined after the second half of the 20^th Century and the quarry went to a smaller, bagged system, and shipped by tractor-trailer in the 1970s. Cement manufacturing in Howes Cave ended in 1976.

The A&S played an important role in the success of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad in the second half of the 19^th Century. In a commemorative publication, “A Century of Progress, 1823-1923,” prepared by the D&H, the authors noted: “This progress in building the Albany and Susquehanna was by far the most important that affected the later history of the company during this period.

“[The A&S was] part of a larger general plan of affecting rail communication between Albany and the coal fields of northern Pennsylvania.”

The D&H ran independently from 1823 to 1991, when it was purchased by Canadian-Pacific Railway.

Riding the A&S Line to Old Howe’s Cave

The jostling, 39-mile train ride from downtown Albany to Howe’s Cave⁵took a little more than two hours, including 10 stops along the way to pick up passengers or make water stops for the steam locomotive. (The water stops were strategically located about every 10 miles through what are now the suburbs of Albany. There were stations with water stops in Central Bridge and Cobleskill.)

According to a January 1868 schedule in Jim Shaughnessy’s 1967 book, Delaware & Hudson, an A&S train left the Albany station about every four hours.

From the other end of the line, Howe’s Cave was 81 miles east of Harpersville, near Binghamton, with 17 stops along the way. If you left on the first A&S train at 5 a.m., you’d arrive at the cave just before noon.

In either direction, it is unlikely the noisy steam locomotive ever reached its top speed of about 50 mph, or if it did, it wasn’t for long.

The ride from Albany—one way—likely cost between three and four cents per mile; affordable to the upper and middle class of that period, but a luxury reserved for special occasions for the tradesmen and other working class New Yorkers. From Albany, then, a round-trip ticket to Howe’s Cave on the A&S likely cost between $1.50 and $2.25. That’s around $30 today. “Parlor Cars” for those needing more luxurious amenities and/or privacy were available at an additional cost.

The Howes Cave depot was built following a common design used during that Civil War-era and was about 200 yards south of the hotel(s) that welcomed visitors to the famous cave. A small country station like Howes Cave would have a station agent living in the building itself, or at least close by. It was not uncommon for married couples to live and work together at a station serving a small population.

The station agent’s responsibilities were many. He served as a dispatcher for trains coming and going, taking, giving, and sharing traffic and freight guidance from the central station. The agent would also handle the paperwork for incoming and outgoing baggage, freight, and mail. Passenger trains often carried the “Railway Post Office,” or RPO designation. Such cars picked up and dropped mail enroute and sorted it inside the car while the train was moving.

The train arrived in Howes Cave before a Post Office did and the few residents there relied on the A&S Depot for their postal needs until the PO was established Nov. 18, 1867.

Passenger traffic on the line increased steadily and by the early 1890s, as many as three passenger trains ran daily to and from the Albany area from Cobleskill, according to the 1895 Grips’ Historical Souvenir of Cobleskill, NY.” Trains also left daily for New York City and Boston.

Also, by that time, between 800 and 1,000 freight cars were leaving each month from the busy cement plant in Howes Cave and the stone quarries in Cobleskill, which produced cut stone blocks for projects such as the Brooklyn Bridge and New York Barge Canal system.

# # #

¹ From “Nature’s Wonder: Howe’s Cave,” the second chapter of the Howes Cave Association’s 1885 promotional brochure, “A Summer Home: The Pavilion Hotel, Howe’s Cave, Schoharie County, N.Y.”

² This is today the intersection of Route 7 and Junction Road, Central Bridge. A Historical Marker indicates the location.

³ Personal e-mail from Gardner Cross, July 20, 2022

⁴“The Rail in the Trail” by Susan E. Leath, Bethlehem Town Historian, 2012. Railroad buffs will appreciate that the historian included this: “The line was built with 60-pound iron, and a six-foot gauge enabling it to connect freely with the Erie Railroad in Binghamton. One of the goals was to connect to the southern-tier trains serving Pennsylvania coal country.”

⁵ “A Summer Home: The Pavilion Hotel, Howe’s Cave, Schoharie County, N.Y.” ibid.