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VILLAGES AND HAMLETS OF TAGHKANIC COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK By Capt. Franklin Ellis 223 1878
WEST TAGHKANIC West Taghkanic is the principal village of the town. It contains two stores, two hotels, a Methodist Episcopal church, a wagon and blacksmith-shop, a shoe-shop, and about a dozen dwellings. The first building erected here was the Fite Miller hotel, and the village has been slow of growth. The first blacksmith-shop was kept by Whiting Hinsdale, on the hill just west of the village. It was subsequently moved into the village. The first merchant was Jacob Miller, who kept a store for a few years about the commencement of the present century. For some years after he stopped the business there was no store here. Then Jonathan Lapham opened a store near the same place, probably about 1808. Till within a few years there was a grist-mill at this place. The first name given to the village was "Miller's Corner." It was subsequently known as "Lapham's," and now is "West Taghkanic." Its existence is owing to its being a point on the Hudson and Salisbury road where five roads centre, making it a convenient gathering-place for the people of this part of the town.
TAGHKANIC Taghkanic is a small hamlet a little east of the centre of the town, containing an Evangelical Lutheran church, a store, a hotel, a blacksmith-shop, a harness-shop, and half a dozen houses. The first hotel kept here was Jonas Miller's house, and previous to the division of the town this was the place where the town business was mostly done. NEW FORGE New Forge, situated at the lower bend of Copake creek, in the south part of the town, about equidistant from Taghkanic and West Taghkanic, was at one time a place of considerable importance in this vicinity. The first buildings erected here were the forges, residence, and tenant-houses of the Livingstons, which were built prior to the Revolution. The forge stood about on the site of the present mill, and after running a few years was abandoned about 1790. The trip-hammer used there was in existence within the memory of some of the present citizens of the town, who used to test the strength of their youthful muscles by endeavoring to lift it from the ground. The race which conveyed the water to the forge was a narrow channel cut out of the slate rock, and is still in existence, though somewhat choked up with accumulations of earth ad debris. The Livingston residence, at one time occupied by Robert Swift Livingston, is now in a very dilapidated state. It stood on a rise of ground west of the old forge, in a grove of forest-trees, and was a commodious house and pleasantly situated. Subsequent to the abandoning of the forge, several buildings were erected there. The upper building was a grist-mill, the middle one was a blacksmith-shop, and the lower one was a feed and plaster-mill. These buildings are still standing. At the same time there was a store kept in a building that stood a little west of the mill near the road. About twenty years ago the store, then kept by John Link, was burned down. The grist-mill stopped soon after, and the plaster and feed-mill was stopped some eight or nine years ago. None of the buildings except two dwellings are now in use. The creek at this point runs in a double curve or form of the letter S, and in a distance of less than a quarter of a mile falls a distance of more than a hundred feet. The eastern bank is rocky and precipitous, clothed with a dark growth of pines intermixed with other trees, and presents a very picturesque appearance. The place was called New Forge to distinguish it from the "old forge" at Ancram. A small part of the village of Churchtown lies in the extreme northeast corner of the town. |
