In September of 1876, a group of men led by a reporter from a Saratoga newspaper, visited the Saratoga County Poor House in Ballston Spa. Their purpose was to meet a “centenarian” who was there under the charge of Keeper of the Poor House George D. Story. The person they hoped to visit that day was a 102-year-old ex-slave named Samuel Rumples. We are fortunate that this unnamed reporter wrote about their time with Samuel, and that his account of the meeting was published in the September 26, 1876, edition of the Saratoga Sentinel. 

Samuel had been born as a slave into the household of Nicholas Fort of Halfmoon in 1775. While no written record of Samuel’s birth or his years as a slave has been found, according to the Federal Census, Nicholas Fort did own three slaves in both 1790 and 1800. 

Nicholas Fort established a rope ferry across the Mohawk River in Saratoga County in 1728, and there established the hamlet of Fort’s Ferry. This community lasted until about 1907, when work being done to build the Barge Canal raised the water level, making the location uninhabitable. 

New York was the eighth state to begin the process of ending slavery within its borders. It was a gradual process that began with children born after July 4, 1799, to enslaved mothers in New York being born free. Unfortunately, these young men and women had to stay with their mothers’ owners until they reached twenty-five if female and twenty-eight if male. For those born before 1799, freedom would not come until 1827. 

As Samuel Rumples was born in 1775, his release from slavery did not come until his 52nd year in 1827. In 1830, a free African American named Samuel Rumpus is found in the Halfmoon Federal Census. In this family are one male under 10 years of age, a man and woman between 36 and 53, and a man and woman over fifty-five. 

 In 1831, Samuel Rumpus, Jr., purchased a 2-acre parcel in Halfmoon for $150, and five years later, with his last name spelled Rumpas on the deed, he sold it for a profit of $73. It was in June of 1843 that Rumpus again purchased property in Halfmoon, Saratoga County. This time, he paid two hundred and forty dollars for a one-acre parcel that sat along the north side of the Mohawk River between the road leading to Fonda Ferry and the Erie Canal. The Fonda Ferry was adjacent to what is today the Crescent Bridge, where Route 9 crosses the Mohawk River. In 1846, Samuel, this time with his name spelled Rumpuss and using an X mark to sign his name, sold the property.

While Samuel talked with his visitors, he told of a time in his life that he had “amassed quite a small property,” but had lost it all through a friend’s fraudulent actions some thirty years earlier. From Saratoga County Supreme Court records, the truth of this matter is revealed.

In the 1840s, Rumples made a verbal agreement with Sarah Freligh to pay $400 plus interest “within a reasonable time” to purchase property along what is now Moe Road in Clifton Park. For over ten years Rumples lived on the property, and during that time he never paid any of the principal and only a small portion of the interest on this contract. 

With Rumples not fulfilling his agreement to purchase the land, in 1855, Sarah sent her niece’s husband, Nicholas Philo, to collect payment, and to inform Rumples that if he would not pay, the property would be sold. As Samuel Rumples did not pay the amount owed, in 1856, the property was sold to Eber Mills. 

At that time, the new owner agreed to rent the house and a small piece of surrounding property to Rumples for twelve dollars a year. After a year went by with Rumples not paying any of the rent owed to Mills, and likely because he was facing eviction from the property, he brought legal action against the previous and present owners of the property. Two years later, C. A Waldron was appointed as the referee to decide the case by the Saratoga County Supreme Court. It was in May of 1858 that Waldron announced his decision. First, he gave Samuel Rumples thirty days to pay the $429 due on the verbal contract he originally made with Sarah Freligh, as well as $35 in court costs. 

In the second part of the decision, Rumples was given the option to buy the portion of the property he had been renting from the present owner of the property, Eber Mills, by paying within thirty days, $408.25 plus court costs of $108.25. If Rumples did this, Mills would be required to grant him a “good and sufficient” deed to the property. There is no record that Rumples ever complied with these decisions. 

After this loss, Samuel Rumpus stayed in Saratoga County, with 1865 census records listing 85-year-old Samuel, and his 79-year-old wife Nancy living in Clifton Park. Sometime between 1865 and when he was interviewed in 1876, Samuel Rumple’s wife Nancy passed away, he lost his eyesight and found his way to the County Poor House in Ballston Spa. When the reporter and his friends talked with Samuel, his memory was growing dim, but he still could clearly remember his life with the Fort family, even recalling his old master, Nicholas Fort, who by then had been gone for over 50 years, as “the best man he ever seen.” 

The poor house where Samuel was living when he received his visitors was only three years old, having been built to replace the original building on the property in 1873. It was a two-story brick building with wings for both men and women. The visitors that day found the building to be as neat as a well-ordered hotel, making it difficult to realize that it was even an almshouse. At the time of their visit, the poor house held one hundred and twenty-five inmates. 

As the sun set, the men visiting Samuel Rumple bid their farewells and set off for home. 

While no date of death or place of burial was recorded for Samuel Rumples, thanks to this reporter and the Saratoga Sentinel, his story of embracing freedom after slavery has been preserved, and he will not be forgotten. 

On a cold December night in 1906, when the Champlain Canal still bisected the village of Mechanicville, a 61-year-old woman living alone in a second-floor apartment on Canal Street heard a cry for help.  Going out onto her porch overhanging the not-yet-frozen waterway, she saw a man floundering in the stagnant water.  She leaped over the railing into the canal below and swam to the man’s side.  Her cries for help, along with his, did bring help and the man’s life was saved.

Who was this courageous woman who put her life on the line for a total stranger? She was called “Mrs. Cats” by neighborhood children because she kept at least 40 of the creatures as well as a squirrel in her home. A reclusive woman, she had few friends, and her life before Mechanicville and Stillwater was completely unknown to the neighbors amidst whom she had lived off and on for around 30 years. After her heroic dive into the canal, she went back to her houseful of cats and her solitary existence. Mrs. Cats died eleven years later, alone on Canal Street, on April 17, 1917.  She was cremated and her ashes entombed at Oakwood Cemetery in Troy.

What was then known of Annie Blanche Scott Sokalski was that she was a widow but all she would ever say about her late husband was that he was a true gentleman and a hero of the Civil War. She had cared for a friend, Kate Hewitt of Stillwater, whose fiancé, General John Reynolds, had died at Gettysburg, until Kate’s death.  She had for a time tutored the children of a family in Hemstreet Park.  A member of St. Luke’s Church, she was gifted on the piano, and her neighbors, the Leylands, let her play their piano. She had directed an operetta, “Red Riding Hood”, at the Academy in Stillwater.  She had supported herself selling bicycles in Stillwater and Mechanicville, and later became a door to door peddler. It was a meager existence, a lonely life, a hard life for a woman alone.  It would be half a century before the rest of Annie Sokalski’s story would be known. 

Annie was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1845 to the wealthy, slave-owning Scott family.  She was well-educated and sang in her church choir.  She also played the organ at church, and unlike most genteel southern belles, she could ride a horse as well as a man could.

When the War Between the States broke out, the Scotts supported Arkansas’ secession from the Union, and Annie’s uncle and cousin became officers in the Confederate Army. After Ulysses S. Grant’s victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863, Union troops moved into Little Rock and occupied the capital city for the duration of the war. One of the officers in the occupation was Captain Sokalski.

George O. Sokalski, a career military man was born in Troy and had graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1861, a classmate of George Armstrong Custer Somehow, in the midst of war, Annie met the young captain and the two fell in love.  Two days after Christmas in 1864, the 19-year-old girl and the Yankee officer were married in Little Rock.  Three days later, Sokalski was ordered to the frontier.  Annie, disowned by her family for marrying the enemy, went west with him.

Annie embraced the frontier life.  She acquired thirteen hunting dogs.  Her two favorites were named Romeo and Juliet. She learned to shoot a gun and became an expert marksman.   She was a better rider than most cavalrymen. The story goes that soon after the war had ended, dressed in wolf skins and wearing a riding habit with wolf tails hanging from her skirt, she galloped across the parade ground at Fort Kearney past a stunned General William Tecumseh Sherman who thought she was an Indian. 

Sokalski, who had been promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel, was next sent to Post Cottonwood in Nebraska Territory.  He was a highly-regarded young officer, experienced in all phases of combat, having served in 56 engagements in the war, but he was a bit of a hothead. Being a West Point trained officer, he resented being under the command of officers who had come up as volunteers and political appointees. He soon got himself in trouble for insubordination and was court-martialed.

On May 1, 1866 Sokalski’s trial began.  He would plead his own case, assisted by his feisty young wife.  The case went on for 8 days, but when the time came for Annie to take the stand on her husband’s behalf, the judge declared her incompetent to give evidence.  The case was lost. Sokalski was dishonorably discharged on July 10.  After an appeal was rejected, he lost heart.  But Annie was not about to give up.  She appealed by every means available to her, and on October 26, her husband was reinstated as a cavalry officer.  The success was not to be enjoyed, however, for the 27-year-old colonel died several weeks later at Fort Laramie in Dakota Territory and was buried there.

But not for long.  With no fanfare, Annie took her husband’s body home to Troy in a covered wagon.  She had him buried in Mount Ida Cemetery, but she told no one.  She returned to Little Rock where she taught school, but, rejected by her family, she left Arkansas and moved to this area in the mid 1870’s, living in Stillwater and Mechanicville for most of the next forty years.  She tended to her many cats, occasionally made beautiful music on the Leylands’ piano and peddled trinkets door to door.

The story of Annie Sokalski came to light largely through the efforts of Major General Charles G. Stevenson, working for the Polish National Alliance in the 1960’s.  With the approaching centennial of the end of the Civil War, the PNA was anxious to find the true burial site of Colonel Sokalski, who had been the first officer of Polish descent to graduate from West Point Military Academy.  . Thanks to meticulous research and some persistent physical searching, the colonel’s gravesite was finally found in Mt. Ida by a young boy scout who was part of the party searching the cemetery for the grave.

Annie’s ashes were removed from the vault at Oakwood and brought to Mt. Ida on September 11, 1965.  In a proper and fitting ceremony honoring Colonel Sokalski, and with prayers offered by Rev. Robert G. Field of St Luke’s Church, Annie Blanche Scott Sokalski finally rejoined the true love of her life.

The story of this fiercely independent woman of incredible courage and commitment, a giver of self, a humble and unassuming one-time southern belle who died alone at home alongside the canal in downtown Mechanicville, begs us to wonder . . . do we ever really know our neighbors?

Sources:“The Gentle Tamers: Women of the Old Wild West” by Dee Brown; Newspaper articles by Harold Sheehan: The Saratogian, April 29, 1963, July 11,1965, and January 16, 1972; The Schenectady Gazette, November 21, 1981;  

There it is, sitting atop a hill, a hill known 200 years ago as Courthouse Hill, on present-day Middleline Road.  It is north of the Middleline Road/Charlton Road intersection where Eliphalet Ball established his church, the center of the community.  That community was to become the town of Ballston.  And, yes, there it is, still standing to this day, a building then known as the Colonial Inn.

Yes, an inn and a place to relax, eat, drink, sit with friends.  Right across from the Saratoga County Courthouse (and the county jail) where barristers argued their cases. A place where the likes of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr came as lawyers.  Ballston Spa’s John Taylor, who went on to become the only New Yorker to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives, argued cases there.  And then visitors to the court probably spent the night or a few nights at the Colonial Inn, right across the road from the Courthouse.

But the history of the inn’s property goes back to the Watrous family.  Edward Watrous came to Ballston in 1775 and, two years later, he married the “girl next door,” actually from across the road, Susannah Pierson. But their world was turned upside down in 1780 when the British raided Ballston in search of Patriots.  Much of the Watrous family had been sent away to Richmond, Virginia; an earthern breastwork had even been constructed to protect the property but Edward and probably a son remained in Ballston.  The British plundered the entire Middleline Road area and burned many of the structures there.  Watrous’ house was ransacked but not burned.  Watrous was taken prisoner and was taken to Montreal where he was held as a prisoner for over two years.  He was released in November, 1782. 

Several years after the raid, in 1796, the Courthouse was built for $6750 as Ballston was, at the time, the seat of Saratoga County. It was Edward Watrous who gave the land on which the courthouse was built.  The building burned down in 1816 and the seat of the county was moved to Ballston Spa. 

On Watrous property, across from the Courthouse, the Inn was built a year after the courthouse.  Another year later, the “Saratoga Register,” the first newspaper in Saratoga County, was published right at the Inn.  That newspaper became the Ballston Journal and is still being published today (online only). The Inn was surrounded by upwards of 25 other buildings, most of them homes for the people who had come to this area with Eliphalet Ball or who had migrated to this area after the initial settlement.

There was also a store on the property.  Whether it was in the Inn or as a separate building is yet to be determined but, according to an 1804 ad in a local newspaper, “The Saratoga Advertiser,” Watrous had taken over the store from a John Marvin (who moved his business to a different location) and was selling groceries, crockery, glass and hollowware (ie., vessels that can contain something as opposed to flatware) as well as cloth (broad cloths, flannels, and “cassimeres”).  Brandies, wines, tea, and sugars were also available at the store.  In a Saratoga County business ledger, Edward Watrous is listed as buying “sundries” and tobacco for the store during the years 1804-1805.  But those are the only citations attributed to Watrous and listed in this ledger that encompasses much of southern and central Saratoga County.

It seems that Watrous was more than willing to go after debtors who owed the store money.  There are legal notices in newspapers in both 1815 and 1819 about he and others trying to procure the money owed to them. In one of the cases, a man’s house and property in Greenfield were at stake!

The original building that housed the inn had low doorways and stairs in the center of the building.  That was, at the time, the main hallway. There were no fireplaces but wood stoves provided heat.  There was a birthing room near the kitchen; that room later became part of the kitchen. One of the rooms upstairs was extremely small and used for guests, sometimes more than two people at a time in the same room, people who did not even know each other. 

The building itself has been much changed from the original.  Frederick Telford, one of the owners of the property (he purchased it in 1931), bought the property from David, Loretta, and Leland Miller, all minors, who had inherited the property from Robie Miller, presumably their mother, and Dwight Harlow, Robie’s brother.  Telford removed the ballroom and the barroom which sat on the south side of the inn. Telford’s daughter, Doris Collins, writes in a 2002 letter that she well remembered the privy, a wooden building bathroom, that was a three holer: one large hole for men, a smaller one for women, and a small one (with steps!) for the children. 

In the 1950’s, when Winslow and Mae Lillie owned the property, they built an apartment on the back of the building.  

In the 20th century, after the creation of the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District, this property was the northern boundary of the school district. As property north of the house was sold off, those new independent properties also became part of the school district, thus expanding its area northward.  

In 1974, a tornado destroyed the very tall barn on the property.  A new barn was constructed using the wood from the old barn but making it far shorter in height.  All that remains of the original old barn is an old stable post.  

As late as the 1920’s, long after the demise of the courthouse, the Schenectady Gazette was still mentioning the location “Courthouse Hill” as an identifier in some of its news articles and want ads.  

Today, the past is remembered through the presence of a historical marker at the top of Courthouse Hill on Middleline Road, Ballston, New York. A building that ties the past to the present and all of our futures. 

 Sources:

Ye Olde Days, Katherine Q. Briaddy

Saratoga County Heritage, Violet B. Dunn, Editor

Deeds, Saratoga County Clerks Office, Boyd to Lillie, 1955 and Miller and Harlow to Telford, 1931

Schenectady Gazette, June 18, 1925 and December 1, 1926

Personal Recollections from owners Jane and Parker Baum; Doris Collins, Frederick Telford’s daughter; and an unnamed descendant of Dwight Harlow

The Saratoga Advertiser, December 31, 1804

Ballston Spa Journal, April, 1975

Albany Argus, 1815 and 1819

Saratoga Ledger of local stores, stored as “Milton Ledger” at Brookside Museum, from first quarter of 19th century

When I decided to attend Skidmore College in April 2021, I had no idea that I was about to step into one of the deepest historical ravines in the country. Saratoga County and its surrounding areas witnessed history from the birth of the Iroquois Confederacy – which some scholars argue laid the foundations for the representative democracy we enjoy today – to the tumultuous Battles of Saratoga, which secured American Independence by convincing France that they ought to aid this small, fledgling country. In some ways, the Capital Region of New York State is the Cradle of the Nation. Throughout my time majoring in history at Skidmore and interning with the Saratoga County Historian’s Office, I visited many local historical sites and museums and became accustomed to the community of history aficionados who live here, and the very important public history educational network in this region. So even upon my graduation from Skidmore, it was not yet time to leave.

For the summer following the end of my college career, I was lucky enough to land an internship with WMHT. My duties went far beyond that of a typical intern—I gained valuable control room experience, helped to edit videos, and participated in both studio and field shoots (including one at the New York State Capitol). The historical focus of the internship, however, was working on local programming related to Ken Burns’ project The American Revolution. The opportunity to work in such a historically important region was an exciting experience.

My specific assignment was Production Assistant and Grip on the WMHT series Field Trip, which showcases interesting locations and tourist hotspots across the Capital Region. A special Revolutionary War themed episode will air on November 16, as a prequel  to Part 1 of Ken Burns’ The American Revolution. I was present for production at two locations in that film: General Phillip Schuyler’s house in Albany, and the vast fields which hosted the Battle of Saratoga.

On June 24, we headed to the first of these shoots. The Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site in Albany is about as jarring an anachronism as one could possibly find. On a hill overlooking the heavily developed city of Albany, with its concrete, metal, and asphalt, is an old, stately mansion from a time long gone. The mansion, which once belonged to Phillip Schuyler, is now a museum dedicated to his life and legacy, the good and the bad. Schuyler and his wife, Catherine Van Rennsselear, were part of an almost-feudal landed elite with Dutch roots (going back to the original colonial overlords of this area) which used to dominate the politics of New York State. It is certainly not how we think of Albany now, but there it is: a tiny island of the past situated in the middle of an ever-changing landscape.

 The anachronism carries over into the inside of the building. The Schuyler Mansion was built in the 1760s, with much of it dating back to when Phillip himself was still alive. As such, the confluence of modern filmmaking technology with delicate wooden floors, lightly traversable stairs, and closed-off bedrooms must be very precisely managed. 

I quickly realized that filmmaking is not always glorious. The day before the shoot, my fellow intern and I spent  time drilling holes into the bottom of tennis balls. In order to prevent scuffing up the centuries-old floors, these tennis balls had to be inserted onto the bottom of the tripods’ legs. There, they act as a cushion on the floor. This was one of several precautions we took to preserve the historical authenticity of the places we shot at.

Phillip Schuyler himself was a fascinating figure from the region. Although no expert, I learned a great deal about him during my internships.  A wealthy member of Albany County’s landed gentry, he was appointed a Major General in the Continental Army in 1775 and is more recognized for his logistical skills than his military strategy.  He was the commander of the failed 1775 invasion of Canada although illness prevented him from leading the army in the field. In 1777 he led forces defending the region from Burgoyne’s invasion until replaced by Horatio Gates leading up to the Battles of Saratoga.  

The second major shoot I was involved in for Field Trip’s American Revolution-themed episode, at the Saratoga National Historical Park, took place a few weeks later on July 8. In the almost 80 degree heat, this was quite a day. After setting up some equipment to record a few brief interviews with park staff at the Visitor Center, we loaded it all up again to drive down to the actual battlefield itself. What followed were more interviews with staff, a shoot of a Fife and Drum band, and then the capturing of some B-roll footage at the end of the day. The park is absolutely beautiful, and it is difficult to think that such a serene landscape was once the site of such suffering, killing, and death. But then again, the sacrifices made at Saratoga are what led to the creation of this very country we live in today.

The Battles at Saratoga took place at a critical time in our revolutionary struggle. With the defeat of General John Burgoyne and first ever surrender of a British army, Saratoga certainly deserves the title of Turning Point of the Revolution. But it was the resulting alliance with France that eventually sealed our independence with the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown four years later.

As excitement for Ken Burns’ film on the American Revolution continues to mount, local historical education and public programming efforts are also foundational to our understanding of the story of our nation. In an era when funding for many of these institutions are at risk it is crucial that we continue to support them. Please consider donating to WMHT and the Saratoga Battlefield so they can continue their valuable work and more people like me can fall in love with this region and its history in the future.

Sources-Life of General Philip Schuyler, 1733–1804 by Bayard Tuckerman, 1903

1777 Campaign-Saratoga National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) nps.gov 

Long before Ballston Spa was incorporated in 1807, a grand vision rose from its mineral-rich soil: the Sans Souci Hotel. Built in 1803 by Nicholas Low—one of the village’s earliest developers and most influential landowners—the hotel was a marvel of its time. Towering three stories high and capable of hosting 250 guests, it briefly held the title of the largest resort in the United States. With its elegant proximity to the famed mineral springs and a nightly rate of $8 (a luxury in its day), Sans Souci attracted a glittering clientele of politicians, economists, and literary figures. 

However, in 1849 as Saratoga Springs superseded Ballston Spa as the more prominent resort, the property underwent a change of ownership.  The Hotel was sold to John W. Fowler, a Connecticut lawyer with a bold idea: to transform this opulent retreat into a place of legal instruction. Fowler, who had previously founded a law school in Cherry Valley, believed law was not just a profession; it was a discipline of both art and science. And so began the curious chapter of Ballston Spa’s forgotten law school, tucked inside the walls of a resort that once defined American leisure. 

The law school was known by at least four different names: “State and National Law School,” “New York State and National Law School,” “Ballston Law College,” and “Fowler’s State and National Law School.” Fowler wanted to bring practical training for students and not just teach legal theories. One of the main innovations of the curriculum was that law students get practical training in the art of courtroom etiquette and learned how to prosecute or defend a client in a court of law. The school even had a chapter of Theta Delta Chi (ΘΔΧ), a fraternity founded in 1847 at Union College, in Schenectady, New York. 

Fowler inaugurated the Ballston Spa School of Law with a distinguished faculty and quickly garnered substantial support. His vision for legal education emphasized both theoretical and practical dimensions of discipline, incorporating mock trials as a central pedagogical tool. These simulations required students to assume various courtroom roles—judges, attorneys, jurors, and defendants—fostering a dynamic and immersive learning environment. 

Admission to the school was highly selective, with criteria extending beyond academic aptitude to include race and gender; only white males were considered eligible. In 1850, the school denied admission to John Mercer Langston, a Black man who had recently become only the second African American to pass the bar exam. Encouraged by a friend, Langston wrote directly to Fowler and requested a personal meeting. Although he was ultimately offered a place at the school, Langston declined the opportunity, unwilling to compromise his identity or misrepresent his heritage. Instead, he pursued legal studies at Oberlin College in Ohio, where a practicing attorney mentored him. Langston’s career would prove remarkable: he served as Inspector General of the Freedmen’s Bureau following the Civil War, became Dean of the Howard University School of Law, and was elected to Congress in 1888.

Among the distinguished graduates were Colonel John Slocum, who served in the second Rhode Island Infantry, and fell leading his regiment at the Battle of Bull Run; future Governor of Virginia Gilbert C. Walker; Abraham R. Lawrence, New York Supreme court judge; and Roger A. Pryor, from Virginia who served in Congress before the Civil War, became a Confederate General, and after the war moved to New York City and resumed his law career. These alumni would reflect honor on any institution. A New York State board monitored the school, which was authorized to confer upon each graduate the degree of LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws). 

The final graduation commencement occurred in 1852. Unfortunately, the former hotel was not the best environment, and that led to the decision to relocate the school to Poughkeepsie. According to the trustees of the school, “The building in Ballston is old and the rooms are cold, while in Poughkeepsie our accommodations are comfortable and pleasant. The village to which we have removed is much larger and more pleasant than Ballston, containing six or eight flourishing literary institutions, of which four are female seminaries. The people of Poughkeepsie furnish, besides these libraries, adequate funds to place the institution on a high and permanent basis.” 

Though Fowler’s law school remained in Ballston Spa for only a brief period, its impact under the leadership of Fowler was far-reaching. After relocating to Poughkeepsie as the State and National Law School, it continued to produce distinguished alumni, including future-President Chester A. Arthur, Union Army soldier Sullivan Ballou, three senators, and at least nine US Congressman – legal minds who got their initial training at a small short-lived law school in two New York communities.

Future President of the United States, Chester A Arthur studied at the law school in 1853, and then graduated from Union College. He served as quartermaster general of the New York Militia during the Civil War. After the war, he entered politics and went on to be elected Vice President in 1880. When President James A. Garfield was assassinated, he became the 21st President of the United States.

Sullivan Ballou eventually married Fowler’s niece, Sara Shumway. Ballou’s fame during the war, came after his death, when a letter he wrote to his wife Sara a week before he was killed in action in the Battle of Bull Run, was published, and influenced Ken Burn’s 1990 award-winning documentary The Civil War.

For a time, the school did well in Poughkeepsie, but enrollment declined as men joined the military to fight in the Civil War and the law school closed for good in 1865. Fowler went on to teach at the American Business College in Springfield, Massachusetts and passed away in Poughkeepsie in 1873.

When the law school in Ballston Spa moved on, the Sans Souci Hotel found new purpose. In 1863, Reverend D. W. Smith transformed the grand structure into a Ladies’ Seminary, offering boarding and education to young women until 1886. From luxury resort to legal academy to women’s school, the Sans Souci stood as a testament to Ballston Spa’s evolving commitment to education. Though demolished in 1887, its legacy endures—proof that even in a time when academic opportunities were uneven, Ballston Spa nurtured learning for both men and women. 

Bill Curtiss was born in 1952 at the Benedict Memorial Hospital, the second child of Wm S. Curtiss Jr and Beverly Lane.  Bill married his high school sweetheart, Carol Wilson in 1973. Together they raised their daughter Christel and now have three grandchildren. Bill is the President of the Ballston Spa Village Cemetery and continues to research his family history. 

On Hop City Road in the Town of Ballston sits the Willow Marsh Farm, the farm on which my dad, William Schuyler Curtiss Jr. was born and raised.  For five generations, the farm has been owned by successive Curtiss families, currently by my cousin Chuck Curtiss. 

The Curtiss family in America goes back almost 400 years. In 1637 my ninth great-grandparents John (1577-1639) and Elizabeth Hutchins, migrated from England to Roxbury MA. By 1639, they and their three sons had moved on to Stratford, Connecticut, becoming some of the founding settlers of that village. 

The line continues with William, followed by three Jonathans, then on to my fourth great-grandfather, Andrew.  Andrew Curtiss, and his wife Patience Nichols and family moved from Huntington, Connecticut to the Town of Charlton, NY around 1796.  The family quickly became members of the Ballston Center Presbyterian Church, founded by the Reverand Eliphalet Ball.  Andrew’s brother, Jonathan is the ancestral line of the Curtis Lumber family.  Andrew was a farmer who earlier had taken up arms in the Revolutionary War. 

Andrew and Patience’s son, Abijah, my third great-grandfather, was born in 1791 in Huntington, Connecticut.  He married Naomi Smith, originally from Bridgeport, Connecticut.  Abijah was instrumental in securing the purchase of the current Hop City farm for his son, my second great-grandfather, William Smith Curtiss.  Abijah’s home was located on Middleline Road, where he also operated a gristmill and farm. 

William Smith Curtiss, was born December 29, 1814 in the Town of Ballston.  He married Martha VanOstrand in 1840, and they were parents to five children.  In 1846, William purchased the subject 140-acre farm from the estate of William DeForest who had died two years earlier.  The sale of the farm was for the benefit of the orphaned young DeForest children.  

From what I remember listening to family stories, William S. Curtiss was not a hands-on farmer. He fell into the category of ‘Gentleman Farmer’, more of a supervisor.  He and his successors are credited with continuing improvements to the farm’s facilities and its dairy herd.  William served as town Justice and assessor.  In his later years, William spent his winters in the village.  Newspaper articles show various addresses, including West High Street and Ballston Avenue.  The New York census of 1892 lists William and daughter Anna as living near Becky Jones, the infamous ‘Obstinate Becky’.  Becky’s house still stands on West High Street adjacent to where the Gordon Creek tributary flows under the road.  Incidentally, on the 1880 US census, my wife Carol’s second great-grandparents are listed on the same West High Street page, so they were apparently neighbors, small world!

William’s son Anson (my great-grandfather), was born in 1849 and inherited the farm in 1892. Unlike his father, Anson was a very hands-on farmer until his retirement.  Following in his father’s footsteps, he was very involved in town affairs, also serving as Justice of the Peace and town assessor.  Anson’s wife Esther and her sisters are credited with establishing a Sunday School called the Hop City Sabath School in the mid 1880’s.  In the early 1900’s, Anson and wife Esther spent the winter months in the Village.  Many society columns indicate they resided on Church Avenue, Ballston Avenue, renting the furnished summer home of prominent New York City attorney John P Brown on McMaster Street.  Eventually the couple purchased a very small house on Ballston Avenue. 

Upon Anson’s retirement, my grandfather, William Schuyler Curtiss Sr. continued to operate the farm. Grandpa was always referred to as ‘Schuyler’, so as not to be confused with his grandfather and later my dad.  Schuyler was born on the farm in 1885. He married Winnie Boyd from West Oneonta in 1922. Schuyler and Winnie raised nine children; my dad was the oldest son. Schuyler utilized all available resources for improvements in breeding, sanitation, and feeding for the dependable quality of the generated milk. Many prize-winning cows were among the farm’s herd over the years. Grandma operated a convalescent nursing home that was attached to the farmhouse for several years. 

I remember staying at the farm for a couple of weeks a few summers, riding on the tractor and hay wagon with Grandpa. A few mornings, Grandma would hand me a glass of water and send me upstairs to throw it on one of my younger uncles. I would hand him the glass and tell him to drink up.  

Schuyler remained active, working a couple hours a day throughout his eighties.  He was sixty-seven years old when I was born, so I always remember him as a gray-haired older man. He passed away in 1986, just two months short of his 101st birthday.  

Schuyler’s second oldest son, my uncle, Chuck Curtiss took over farming operations in the late 1950’s or early 60’s and continued the best practices for milk production.  At some point, during his ownership, the farm was named Willow Marsh.  

In 1983, an article written by Schuyler’s sister, Marjorie for “The Gristmill”, Saratoga County History Museum’s quarterly newsletter, tells of a ‘Pack Peddler’ who visited the farm in the 1880’s. One cold winter the peddler came to the farmhouse door trying to sell his wares. When Esther noticed that he was without a winter coat and that he was sick, she had him come in and sit by the stove and gave him supper and a cot to sleep on that night. In the morning, he was given breakfast and a warm coat and gloves. He tried to give the family the contents of his pack, but Anson would have none of that. He did leave some pencils for the children and a pillow cover for Esther, before heading down the road. 

An article in the September 24, 1929, edition of the Ballston Daily Journal celebrating the fiftieth wedding anniversary of Esther and Anson, reveals how Hop City received its moniker. Anson recalls that at some point in the 1800’s, there were five farms engaged in the growing of hops along the road.  A little research shows that by the 1830’s, Albany had a handful of breweries and was the largest hub for beer distribution in the U.S.  This can probably be attributed to Albany’s proximity to the recently completed Erie Canal.  Brewers from the mid-west could now extend their sales further east.