Hidden history of the mid-Hudson Valley: stories from the Albany Post Road

Description

His high mightiness is wearing a dress! -- Prendergast's army and the wild ride on the Post Road that saved its leader -- Revolutionary War spies on the Post Road: the British -- Nathaniel Pendleton: a little-known founding father -- "Citizen" Genet of East Greenbush -- War of 1812 cantonment Greenbush -- The president who wasn't great, just "o.k.": Martin Van Buren of Kinderhook -- Anti-rent wars in Columbia County, 1751-1852 -- A long night in Poughkeepsie -- Underground railroad stations along the Post Road -- Samuel F.B. Morse: painter, inventor, early photographer and political agitator -- The Smith brothers of Poughkeepsie: their famous cough drops (and beards) -- Gypsies on the post road -- Young FDR and the gilded age at Hyde Park -- The rise and fall of Woodcliff Pleasure Park -- The unsolved murder of surveyor Frank L. Teal -- The 1963 Poughkeepsie book burning -- Milestones.;The Albany Post Road was the vital artery between New York City and the state capital in Albany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It saw a host of interesting events and colorful characters, though these unusual and extraordinary stories, as well as their connection to the thoroughfare, are oft forgotten. Revolutionary War spies marched this path, and anti-rent wars rocked Columbia County. Underground Railroad safe houses in nearby towns like Rhinebeck and Fishkill sheltered slaves seeking freedom in Canada, and Frank Teal's Dutchess County murder remains unsolved. With illustrations by Tatiana Rhinevault, local historian Carney Rhinevault presents these and other hidden stories from the Albany Post Road in New York's mid-Hudson Valley.