Discovered in Old Council Minutes

Seeking to discover what happened to the Hudson-Fulton Memorial Fountain, Gossips spent some time yesterday with the Common Council minutes from 1909 and 1910. (It will be remembered that the fountain was dedicated on October 7, 1909, and by May 12, 1910, it had been removed from Washington Park.) In the hour or so spent poring through the records, no mention of the fountain was found, but a few other things of interest were discovered. 

For one, 1909 was the first year that a typewriter was used to preserve Council minutes. Prior to that, the bound minutes are handwritten. 

James C. Armstrong, who was the mayor in 1909, seemed to have a penchant for vetoing Council actions, often with the consequence of having to withdraw his veto when further information was provided to him.

The year 1909 seemed to a year for stones going missing. The minutes for the Council meeting held on June 24, 1909, contains this item:

Alderman Finigan said that a committee should be appointed to find out what had become of the flagstones that had been taken up from the streets some years ago; that those stones are worth hundreds of dollars, and people using the streets to-day must wade through mud up to their knees. He moved that the Street Committee investigate as to where the flagging had gone and see if it cannot be used again. Alderman Flanagan said that if Finigan wanted any information about the flag-stones he should go to Poughkeepsie and interview ex-Mayor Rowles, who was Mayor at that time. He said that as he understood it the stones were used for all kinds of purposes. Alderman Small said he had been told that the flagstones had been made into curbstones.   

Samuel G. Rowles served as mayor of Hudson from 1887 to 1888.