By ARIEL ZANGLA
Freeman staff
azangla@freemanonline.com; twitter.com/arielatfreeman

KINGSTON, N.Y. — On Sept. 21, 1907, people living in certain areas had to report to the Ulster County courthouse in Kingston to find out if their property was going to be seized to make way for the creation of the Ashokan Reservoir.

If residents arrived at the courthouse and found their property outlined in pink on a map, it meant they would lose their land. It also meant that they would only be paid a fraction of their property’s assessment, leading many residents to try to fight for more money in state Supreme Court.

Portions of the records of the properties that were seized, the payments that were made and transcripts from the people who tried to fight for more are currently on display outside the Ulster County Clerk’s Office on the second floor of the County Office Building. County Clerk Nina Postupack said the “Ashokan Reservoir Collection” is just part of the collection of records her office maintains, but it sheds light on a part of the area’s history.

“It’s amazing, when you start talking about it, how much history there is to the whole Ashokan Reservoir being built,” Postupack said recently. She said, for instance, people’s properties were seized in 1907 and the reservoir was finished in 1915. The court cases over the land, however, continued into the 1950s, Postupack said.

Postupack said the collection includes display cases that contain the court orders where the property was seized, as well as the front pages of court transcripts. There are also cases containing some orders depositing money into the landowners’ accounts, she said. Postupack added that there are 377 volumes of transcripts in the clerk’s records, which includes thousands and thousands of pages.

On the walls, the Clerk’s Office has hung maps and pictures of the affected properties and the structures that used to stand there. There are also excerpts of some of the transcripts.

One of those transcripts deals with the case of Arvesta Barton who discusses making $150 annually from washing and sewing businesses on her property. She testifies that business slowed down when people started moving away.

Another property owner, Emma Cudney had a ginseng plantation in Shokan and was a weaver. There are more than 100 pages of testimony for Cudney who sought $32,000 for loss and damages from her property being seized. Ultimately, she was paid $5,500 for the ginseng plantation and $3,000 for her weaving business and property.

“These places are gone, yet with the records you can re-create them,” said Laurie Hancock, deputy county clerk for Records Management. She said through the transcripts a person was able to learn about their ancestors’ home, including its layout and features. That first-hand testimony brought it to life, Hancock said. Continued...

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Chief Deputy County Clerk Alice Lawlis said people are free to visit the collection when the County Office Building is open. She said the collection will be on display until April 30, after which the Clerk’s Office hopes to move it to a local library or town hall so more people can see what it has to offer. Lawlis added that not everyone can come to Kingston, so moving the exhibit makes it more available to the public.

“What we tried to do in this exhibit is associate the trial transcripts that came out of this taking of the property, as well as pictures of structures that were on the pieces of property, to actually make them come alive for an individual,” Postupack said. “So, they could actually understand what occurred back in that time.”

Postupack said many of the people whose lands were seized were represented by an attorney named Alphonso Clearwater. She said Clearwater attempted to help his clients get more money for their land, not just for sentimental reasons, but because their whole lives were being uprooted.

The exhibit shows a part of history that no longer exists, Postupack said. She said places like Olive City are gone and there are entire structures that were dismantled or moved to make way for the reservoir. Postupack added that thousands of graves had to be moved as well.

At the peak, there were 10,000 laborers working to build the reservoir, Postupack said.

Postupack said visitors to the collection can learn more about the area at the time the reservoir was built and also understand some of the fears people may have felt about losing their homes.

A searchable index to some of the collection is available online at www.co.ulster.ny.us/archives/ashokanrecords. Additional information is available by calling the Clerk’s Office at (845) 340-3040.

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