Part One: War and a Changing Nation

By Nancy Bendiner

Nancy is a longtime member of Historic Red Hook and a dedicated volunteer with its Collections Committee. In this two-part article, she explores letters, diaries, and journals preserved in Historic Red Hook’s archives, using the words of past residents to illuminate wartime experiences, family life, work, community, and the changing ways people have communicated across generations. 

On July 28, 1863, Thomas Fraleigh of Red Hook wrote the following letter to his wife Hannah: 

“Dear Wife,

You must be very anxious by this time to here [sic] from me as to my welfare. We are now after a long series of marches in which we’ve passed through Maryland and Pennsylvania and are now in Virginia how different the soil is. Here everything wears a poverty stricken aspect farms——-(indecipherable) house built of logs and with large stone chimneys on the outside. The homes are small and most all of the houses have been burnt and riddled by the Rebels.”

He went on to describe the illnesses of his regiment possibly due to “the last week we’ve had awful water muddy and scarce fit for a horse to drink.”

By Ellen C. Phelan

Ellen is a longtime Historic Red Hook member and Elmendorph Innkeeper. She helps welcome and support those who rent the Inn, and she recently made a surprising personal discovery connecting her to one of the Elmendorph’s original innkeepers.

My sister-in-law recently sent me an email with information about a long lost relative, Julia Elmendorf.  This was an especially interesting and fun fact because I am currently the Innkeeper at the Elmendorph Inn and I wondered – “What are the chances that a distant relative was also an innkeeper at the Elmendorph Inn?” Could I be related to our beloved Cornelius Elmendorph, the first (second?) innkeeper? (or...the man the Friends of Elmendorph named the renovated inn after).

How many women can we name from the American Revolution? Here are the obvious few: Martha Custis Washington, Abigail Adams, Betsy Ross, Molly Pitcher, and Sybil Ludington. Here in the Hudson Valley we think of Janet Livingston Montgomery of Clermont whose husband Richard Montgomery perished in the unsuccessful invasion of Quebec. History aficionados will doubtless be able to identify more; however, while most of us can rattle off names of Patriots and Loyalists, signers of the Declaration of Independence, generals of the Continental Army, and even leaders of the British forces, we are hard pressed to come up with women of the era. And yet, women and girls played significant roles on both sides of the conflict.

This December, Historic Red Hook completed a major milestone: our new Historic Site Interpretive Plan for the Elmendorph Inn. An interpretive plan is the backbone of how a historic site shares its stories—guiding programming, exhibits, and communication—so we can make smart choices about what we present and how. This plan sets the direction for developing the Elmendorph Inn as a visitor-friendly, experiential historic site and community “home for history,” with the ultimate goal of opening the Elmendorph Inn regularly with weekly open hours for tours and annual school field trips.