Historian Coffey spoke to Board
When Town of Highlands Historian Ronnie Coffey showed up at last week’s Town Board meeting, she had cupcakes in hand. Thus, when she spoke, everyone paid attention, in hopes of enjoying one of the cupcakes later.
Which, they did. But, it was pretty apparent they would have enjoyed her brief presentation at the meeting even without the sweet treats.
The occasion was the final ‘event’ of the celebration of the 150th ‘birthday’ of the Town of Highlands.
It was on Dec. 3, 1872 when Highlands separated from Cornwall.
“When the Dutch first came, the Highlands were inhabited by Native Americans,” Coffey said. “The Dutch did not pay much attention to the West side of the Hudson. Then, in 1763, after the English took over, they divided New York into counties. Further subdivisions, via land grants, became towns. We were part of the Town of Cornwall.”
She said that the “difficult” mountain between the two ends of the town created problems.
“For attendance at town meetings required the chartering of boats, which was mostly inconvenient, but also dangerous,” Coffey continued.
She gave examples.
In 1805, on their way to what is now Cornwall, 20 persons drowned. In 1825 two people who were travelling over the mountain in a loaded wagon died when the wagon tipped over and ran them over. In 1846, the skeleton of a man who was travelling by foot to Cornwall was found … he had lost his way and eventually froze to death.
“So, when it came time, there was little opposition to the formation of a separate Town of Highlands,” she said.
Coffey went on to say that there have only been 19 different people to hold the position of supervisor of the town in its 150 years; current Supervisor Bob Livsey has the distinction of being one of the longest tenured. She threw out familiar local last names as others in the past: Avery, Parry, Goodsell and Graber.
Coffey closed her presentation — before offering up the cupcakes — by giving each of the board members a copy of the Highlands issue of the Orange County Times Past. Copies of the 12-page newspaper are available to look at in the Historian’s office, located on the second floor of Village Hall. (Call 446-0400 for office hours.)
