Boston Corner, New York

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Boston Corner is a hamlet of the town of Ancram in Columbia County, New York, USA. It was formerly part of the town of Mount Washington, Massachusetts and was annexed to New York State on April 13, 1857.

[edit] History

The following was written in 1878, and slightly updated in 2005.^[1]

Boston Corners is a small hamlet situated at the junction of the three railroads running through the town of Ancram, Columbia County New York (the New York and Harlem Railroad, Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railroad and Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad [later the Central New England Railway). As of 1878, it contained one hotel, one store, one blacksmith-shop, a fine depot, and about a dozen dwellings, of which nearly half lie to the south in the town of North East in Dutchess County. The name was given to the locality when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts owned the triangular tract of land lying west of the Taconic Mountains. The mountain range formed an almost impassable barrier between this spot and the seat of civil authority, and it became a sort of "city of refuge" for criminals and outlaws of all classes, who fled to it to escape from the reach of the officers of the law. On this account it also became a resort of prize-fighters. The celebrated fight between John Morrissey and James "Yankee" Sullivan occurred here on October 12, 1853. The riot that followed that event made it abundantly clear that some change needed to be made to enable the civil authorities to enforce the laws protective of peace and property. In December 1848 the inhabitants had petitioned to be annexed to the State of New York. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts consented in May 1853. The cession was accepted by New York, July 21, 1853; confirmed by Congress, January 3, 1855; and the corner was annexed to Ancram on April 13, 1857.

The first hotel-keeper here was a man named Albison, who also kept a store. His building was on the site of the present hotel, and was torn down in 1857-58, and rebuilt by Abram I. Vosburgh, whose son M. B. Vosburgh, is the present proprietor. On a brick was found the date of the erection, but it is not remembered, and the brick is lost. Albison also owned a grist-mill, a carding-machine, a fulling and cloth-dressing mill, and a saw-mill, all located on the brook near the present depot. These buildings were abandoned and torn down many years ago, the last one being demolished by the New York and Harlem railroad in 1852. This property was also owned among others by Horace Langdon, Jacob Decker, Andris Van Deusen, James Freeman, and Milo Barnum, father of William H. Barnum, a United States senator from Connecticut, who was born here.

David Williams started the first blacksmith-shop about 1818. He was a Welshman and came from New Jersey. His shop was on the corner near the line of the town of North East. Smith Vosburgh kept the first store, near the depot, at the place now kept by Eugene McIntyre.