More Huguenot Street

 

Accord, New York High 81 Low 57

We had so many pictures of Huguenot Street that we weren't able to post all of them yesterday, so I am posting more.

The first house we went into was the one where the guide told us before we went in that once inside the house it would be 1775 and that she would not know anything about any other time period. She also told us that cameras were not invented in 1775 and for that reason we could not take pictures. Cindy really wanted to take some pictures, but as they were not allowed, she didn't take any inside the first two houses.

After we went in, she had everyone tell where they were visiting from. One couple was from New York, two ladies told her that they originally were from Holland, and I told her we were from Utah. She played the part very well and said she did not know where Utah was. I told her it was way out west. She then asked if that was Spanish territory, and I had to say yes it was Spanish land, as it was part of Mexico in 1775. We had a good time with that.

There was an old Bible on the kitchen table written in Dutch and the Dutch lady read a little of it. If it were authentic it was published in 1725 and looked like it could have been. The only thing that made us wonder was that the lady was allowed to handle the Bible and turn the pages without cotton glove, so it probably was a reproduction.

The last guide told us he was telling us about the 2 houses as if it were 2014. As I said yesterday the first one was not yet furnished and we could see where it started as a one room house and later as the family grew, an addition was added and later a second addition. At each addition the next room back was higher and required a step or two so they would not have to dig as deep a basement. He also told us that the people that lived in it were so used to one room, that they lived in the second room and rented the front room out.

He told us that the oldest thing in the second house, and probably the most valuable, was the old chest that I put pictures of on yesterday’s post. There were some small wooden storage boxes that he told us were for storing candle in because if they weren't stored that way, the mice would eat the candles.

The beds all looked very short, and when I asked about it, I was told that the people weren't necessarily shorter, but the slept kind of sitting up because they thought it was healthier. Also they had more respitory problems because of all the smoke from cooking and heating their homes.

There was an example of the children’s school work on a table, which looked like math story problems. The Dutch lady told us they were in Dutch and seemed to be converting one kind of money to another, and also converting weights from one measure to another.

This was used to make cording, and the size could be adjusted with the slots and number of strings.

After we looked at the houses we went down to the old stone church, but the guide wasn't there, so we didn't get to go inside. There was an old cemetery that some of the headstone couldn't be read that had little signs on that told what was originally engraved on the head stone. I noticed that some of the headstones said that the person was a patentee and had noticed the same thing on the signs by the houses. I was curious enough that I asked one of the guides what it meant. She told me that the 40,000 acres was the patent and that the original 12 men were the patentees.

We have never seen this "weeping" type of pine tree before. We thought it was interesting. Anyone know what kind it is?

We both thought the tour was very worthwhile and we enjoyed it.

On another note: Cindy is diabetic and wanted to have her insulin refilled. We use Walmart Pharmacies because they are everywhere. Today I call the pharmacy in Kingston, and was told that, yes they could refill the prescription, but according to New York law, The prescription had to be transferred here, and then could only be refilled once and the balance of the refills was forfeit. After that she would have to get another prescription from a New York doctor. We have been over a lot of the US and this is the first time we have had that happen. Cindy said she would wait until we get to Pennsylvania.

Tomorrow we are going to Kingston to see the old Senate House State Historical Site. Because of a comment from a reader that lives in Kingston, we are also going on the Hudson River cruise tomorrow afternoon. I am prone to seasickness, but he and their website both say the boat is big enough and the River smooth enough to not be a problem. So I’m game to try it.

Thanks for visiting.