Rare Book Monthly
March: On the Prowl on eBay
This 5 cent bill has increased at 14 times the rate of inflation and still only cost $13.49.
On March 15th I purchased an example of local currency: “ 1861 5 c corp. order Bank Rondout Village NY? Civil War. ” It cost $13.49 and was described as follows:
"Corporation Order", Red serial number, small note approximately 3-1/2 x 2 Name: Bank of the Rondout - Treasurer of the Corporation of the Village of Rondout Face Value: Five Cents Date: 1862 Imprint: Hatch & Co. Signatures: Bray (?) Reverse: Blank Damage: Wear, crinkling, quarter folds, edges
What is this? Rondout was briefly a significant place on the Hudson River where the Rondout Creek and Wallkill River join it at what was then Rondout and what it now Kingston.. Twenty years later Rondout was on its way to being submerged in the emerging city identity of Kingston. A great book was printed in Rondout in 1846, Abraham Bevier’s The Indians. I’ll tuck this note into my copy, a nice addition to what is already a memorable book for me.
Then on March 21st I purchased another example of local currency, described as “ New Paltz, Ulster County NY Bank Note 1863 $5” It’s a $5.00 banknote issued by the Huguenot Bank of New Paltz, New York 101 years before I graduated from the high school there. I’ve always been interested in this area’s history and I’ve never seen or heard of money issued by a New Paltz bank, possibly for good reason. My winning bid was $59.99.
With a few days left in the month I found one more item of interest. On eBay it was described this way: NEW PALTZ REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH RECORDS 1896 1ST ED. It’s actually Records of the Reformed Dutch Church of New Paltz, New York. “Containing an account of the organization of the church and the registers of the consistories, members, marriages, and baptisms. Published by the Holland Society of New York. 1896 First edition. Original orange cloth boards. Very Good condition. 269 Pages With Index. This book is nearly impossible to find. A must for anyone researching the ancestors in historic New Paltz, Ulster County, New York.”
“New Paltz was founded in 1677 by French Huguenots who had taken refuge in what is now Mannheim, Germany for a few years before coming to America. Mannheim was then capital of the area known as the Rheinpfalz or Rhenish Palatine. The French name of the town was Nouveau Palatinat, as given in the founding record of the local Reformed Church in 1683.”
“New Paltz was dominated for over 150 years by the 12 partners and their heirs, referred to as the Twelve Men or the Duzine--who had acquired the royal patent of over 33,000 acres, which stretched all the way from the Shawangunk Mountains to the Hudson River. More land was added, and eventually it was formally divided among the twelve partners, their relatives and some friends. Farms were primarily found east and west of the Wallkill River, which was called the Palse River at first.”
