Feats of Engineering

There are a variety of references to the Colden Canal, built by Jane’s father, Cadwallader Colden. The earliest I have found is an article by John M. Eager published in The Historical Magazine in March of 1864. This article and others state that between 1728 and 1760, using Tin Brook, Cadwallader Colden built a canal on his property to transport fuel and building supplies. This canal is believed to be the first freshwater canal in what is now the United States and was a practical means of transportation when there were few roads through the wooded landscape. While rudimentary, it is considered a predecessor to the great canals and inland waterways of later periods and demonstrates the engineering abilities of Cadwallader Colden.

The source of the canal is in the Great Swamp that lies south of the original Colden home. Portions of the swamp were drained to provide peat for fuel and in this bog meadow Colden used stone to widen Tin Brook and construct a feeder pond for the canal. In the 1864 article Eager writes, “Portions of this work are still visible upon the meadow, now one of the best and most valuable portions of grazing land in that county.” In a 1967 survey conducted by the New York State Historic Trust, Malcolm Booth reports the current purpose of the site as pasture, the condition as poor and endangered by the construction of Interstate 84. He recommends a state marker.

I’ve been told by a few people in the Coldengham Preservation and Historical Society that the last remaining pieces of canal construction are part of Stewart State Forest in what was the northwest corner of Little Britain but can’t be seen because of long term flooding caused by beavers. In fact, the beaver flooding is clearly marked on the Trail and Facilities Map of Stewart State Forest and going there, I see that the beavers have performed their own marvel of engineering. Their pond is large and full and completely obscures any sign of stone.

Assuming that the construction is really there, I can place another dot on my map and greatly expand the Coldengham property line towards the south and well away from the cluster of red dots representing the Colden homes and cemetery.

Ruins

I know of only one standing historic Colden house remaining on the original acres. It's located on the northern part of the patent and was the home of Thomas Colden, grandson of Cadwallader Sr. I have yet to see the house because it is occupied and permission needs to be arranged. Occupied is a good thing because it means, unlike the other Colden buildings, there actually is a house to see. Elsewhere on the original property there are remains of stone walls which I've been told were tenants houses, the recently reclaimed ruin of Cadwallader Jr's house built in 1767 and an educated guess as to the location of the original family home, built in 1724 but no longer existing. 1724 is pretty old, even by Hudson Valley standards but many homes from that period still exist in the area including my own, which was built in 1750 or earlier. This leads me to wonder why my house, never occupied by a historic figure, was preserved and the Colden homes were not.

Jane's father Cadwallader Colden was a prominent citizen of colonial New York. In addition to his scientific studies and well respected books, he served for many years as Surveyor General in the mostly unmapped colony and was appointed to the Provincial Council, an important 12 member group serving the governor. At various times he served as Lieutenant Governor and was part of the prominent society that governed the colony for the British Royal Crown. You might think all of this would lead to the careful conservation of his properties but being a conscientious servant of the crown, he remained a fierce Loyalist as the colonies prepared to revolt. The Colden family was on the "wrong" side of the Revolution and before the war began left Coldengham, seeking security in Flushing, NY. Unlike the heroes of the revolution whose homes and headquarters are now historic sites and museums, the Colden homes eventually changed hands, were neglected and mostly fell to ruin. As a Tory, Cadwallader Colden became a forgotten figure in history and I suspect his unpopularity doomed Coldengham to the same fate.

Sycamore

It's pure coincidence that the beginning of my project coincided with the formation of the Coldengham Preservation and Historical Society. When I attended my first meeting I thought it was a long established organization firmly entrenched in all things Colden but it turns out they're putting together the bits and pieces of information much as I am. Of course, I started from zero and they possess lots of facts that I'm busy gathering but I'm hoping I also contribute and being part of the process is part of the fun. So with the help of my fellow Society members, I gather my clues and see what I can find.

This week, having been given a beautiful hand drawn map and meticulously marked satellite downloads, I went looking for trees. For six months I've been finding and guessing at the ages of trees all over the Coldengham area, looking for specimens that may have existed during the lifetime of Jane. The hand drawn map enabled me to take a few walks in Stewart State Forest on a cold, gray day but failed to produce any of the promised trees. This failure of navigation has led to an invitation to go searching with the map maker "during the January thaw." I'm looking forward to the day. The satellite images brought me to this incredible sycamore that without a doubt, lived at the time of Jane. In fact it's so old I would imagine it was a mature tree when she wandered this area. I've included a portrait of the sycamore, shown here with my fellow tree enthusiast Natalie providing scale.

The Family Name

Since beginning this project last spring I have been searching for remnants of Coldengham. I’ve done research using histories, government records, maps and various letters and papers. I’ve visited known sites on the farm property and guessed at the boundaries. I’ve followed and photographed portions of Tin Brook and have tried to find old trees and other possible 18th c. candidates. I’ve also spent time with Jane Colden’s botanical manuscript and begun researching native plants.

Concurrently I’ve been looking at the farm from the other end of the story and have searched for contemporary traces of the Colden family while cataloguing the transformation of this part of the Hudson Valley. Looking at this land from two directions allows me to work backward as I also work forward through history, piecing together the story of Coldengham/Coldenham.

Adelaide and Jane

Photographic Times was an illustrated monthly magazine devoted to artistic and scientific photography that began in 1871. In Volume XXXII from 1900 there is an article by Adelaide Skeel describing a camera field trip she made to Coldenham in search of the village and farm. Her article contains a description of her trip by trolley, the landscape in autumn and various facts about the activities of the Colden family. The larger part of the piece is a fantasy about a conversation she had with Jane Colden and a visit to the original home including the Cadwallader Sr. library and glimpses of the family coach "with yellow wheels". It seems Adelaide resorted to this device because on first viewing, there was little she could see of historic Coldengham. I can sympathize with her because 110 years after her article, Coldengham is even less visible. I can also thank her because she included a very helpful paragraph she found while reading a local history. It states:

The buildings erected by the Coldens are thus enumerated: "the old stone academy house, Coldenham stone house on the turnpike, long, low house east of stone house at the foot of the hill, house known as the Thomas Colden Mansion north of the turnpike, two dwellings east of the last one named and the dwelling on the hill south of the turnpike, a homestead subsequently deeded by Colden to his son Cadwallader, Jr."

I've already marked my map with the location of the original dwelling south of the turnpike with it's adjacent cemetery and also the stone house on the turnpike belonging to Cadwallader Jr. With the help of Suzanne Isaksen, Town Historian, I've identified the site of the Thomas Colden Mansion and it is now marked at the top of my map forming the most northern boundary of Coldengham I have found.

I've also received recent help from the members of the Coldengham Preservation and Historical Society including Joe Devine who has researched the Colden Canal. The southern two dots on my map represent known canal locations, one of which is located in the current day Stewart State Forest, south of Interstate 84 and the southernmost point of Coldengham on my map.

Adelaide Skeel took her camera with her on her excursion but none of her photographs appear with her article. Perhaps she was so discouraged by the changes she didn't take any pictures. Maybe I should take a hint from Adelaide but instead I'm feeling encouraged as I continue to look for Jane Colden.

Bloodroot

Jane’s detailed botanical descriptions reveal her curiosity and intelligence and her careful observation demonstrates the working of a scientific mind. For a woman of that time to be encouraged to follow an intellectual pursuit and to succeed in the field provides enough explanation for why Jane became the first woman botanist of colonial America. But as I read her entries I find some of them to be not only carefully observed but also erotic.

Stalk is moderately thick, round smooth naked, & grows about a

foot high, it carries a single flower, its top turn downwards so that

the flower hangs with its top downwards but when it is in Seed,

the Stalk stands erect again.

Flowers are of a pale yellow colour, grow from 3 to 10 together, at

The top of the Stalk, each having a separate foot Stalk, of about half

An Inch long, and bend downwards; when the Berries ripens their

foot Stalk become of a bright red colour, & also the under end of

those Leaves directly under them.

Botany is mostly about reproduction so maybe I’m just reading something extra into her writings but I wonder if botanical study provided Jane an avenue into another area off limits to women of her era. In pursuit of this idea I am producing a series of folios that include some of her descriptions. The folio shown here is titled Bloodroot and is made from pigment prints on handmade paper with pressed plants, silk organza and linen thread. It measures 32” x 54” when open.

Holland and Cherryderry

Coldengham was largely self-supporting. The farm grew flax and raised sheep to produce linen and wool that was carded, spun and woven on site. The girls in the family learned to sew as well as knit and with occasional help from itinerant sewers and, I imagine, the family slaves, produced all of the everyday clothing. The ability of the farm to be self-supporting was probably also due in large part to the use of slave labor, mentioned in a letter of Alice Colden (Jane’s mother) from 1732 as “four Negro men and two wenches.”

Some fabrics were imported from abroad including Holland cloth, a fine linen sometimes striped with a colored cotton warp and named for the country where it was first manufactured. Holland was used for women’s dresses and men’s shirts and letters show that Jane’s father was sent 24 yards of Holland for that purpose by his aunt Elizabeth Hill. It has also been recorded that Governor Stuyvesant was christened in an “infant shirt, of fine Holland, edged with narrow lace.” In the Boston Records for the year 1760 “18 shifts one dozn of them very fine hollan” were listed as lost in the Boston fire attesting to the value placed on the imported fabric.

Cherryderry is a striped or checked woven cloth of silk and cotton and has various names including “charadary” and “carridary” which more closely reflect it’s origins in India than the further anglicized “cherryderry.” It was imported beginning in the late 17th c. and was used for women’s dresses and handkerchiefs. It was later manufactured in England but there are no references to it being worn at ceremonial events or mentioned much at all although it is part of a 1740 price list. There it sells for .31 per yard and is the least expensive of all the fabrics including coarse muslin. The only historical reference I find is of a runaway slave caught in Boston in 1728 while wearing a “narrow striped Cherrederry gown.”