The Summer of 1867

Early in 1867, the editor of the Catskill Examiner expressed the opinion in his newspaper that "Hudson is finished" and "should be fenced in." On February 25, 1867, the editor of the Hudson Daily Register fired back, defending his city and casting aspersions on his colleague across the river. His response, which can be read in its entirety here, includes these thoughts:

The fact is, the Catskill editor, when he leaves his little village and gets up here, becomes bewildered at the neatness, activity, and thrift that he sees all around him, and contrasting it with his own ancient borough, he imagines in his artlessness that there is no room for further improvement, and that Hudson surely must be “finished and ready to fence in.” Now we assure him that we are growing very rapidly up here, but we have no thought of “putting up the bars” yet, although the Catskill fellows are very fond of some kinds of “bars” of which we have too many put up already, as the Examiner man knows by his own experience.

Today, I was surprised to discover that months later the editor of the Daily Star was still obsessing about the outrageous notion that Hudson was finished. The following item appeared in the Daily Star on June 21, 1867--149 years ago today.

No doubt "the overgrown Dutchman at the head of the stream" refers to the village of Catskill.

Gossips Note: This item is of particular interest to me, because my own house was likely one of the dwellings under construction on one of those "other principal streets" in the summer of 1867.
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