"JEMIMA WARD'S father owned land and slaves and was part owner of a
toll bridge across the river." (Record of CARMI SMITH, sixth child of
JAMES WARD AND ESTHER (ALDERMAN) SMITH)
CAROL:
I felt for a long time that there must be some mistake about a "toll
bridge across the river" since obviously there were no bridges across
the Hudson River in the 1700's.
The mistake was mine. The Tallow Light article
(Bernice Graham "Descendants of Samuel Smith" Vol. III p 99 1968. a
Washington Co. Ohio pub.)
about SAMUEL SMITH did not say "Hudson River." It just said "river".
Thanks to a Claverack NY resident, Mrs. Merritt, I finally got it straight.
When I said, "There couldn't have been a bridge over the river in the
1700's." She said, "There was too! Just up the road a mile!" Sure
enough, there was not only a bridge, but AN OLD TOLL HOUSE STILL
STANDING on Claverack Creek.
Stonework in the toll house appeared much older than the nearby brick
homes dated in the early 1800's. The toll house coud easily have been
built in the 1700's. A bridge may have predated the stone house.
There must have been a bridge over Claverack Creek long before 1799
when the Columbia Co. Turnpike Company began. The 1790census shows
Hudson to have 2,584 people and Claverack, 3,262.
There was proably a toll bridge here in the middle of the 1700's. And MR.
WARD, JEMIMAH'S father, was part owner of it.