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From the Newsletter

The Life and Times of Johannes Crispell

By David Baker, Historian, Town of Hurley

Johannes Crispell was raised by his step-father, Johannes Schepmoes, a weaver and farmer, who lived just south of the village of Hurley on the Marbletown Road. Johannes decided that he would follow the profession of farming the fertile Esopus River valley. As he did not inherit any farm land from his father, Johannes probably spent the early years of his life farming leased land. By age 29 ( 1724) he had saved enough money to purchase land on Main Street in Hurley village and built a stone house for himself and his wife Anna Margaret Roosa, who was about ten years his junior. On this house lot a large barn was constructed, now known as a 'Dutch' barn, to hold his horses and cattle and for the processing of the grains grown by him on the Esopus Creek valley floor.

The farming methods used by Johannes were brought over by his grandfather, Antoine, and his great grandfather Mattys Blanchan. It was a specific type of wetland farming known to some as 'platt', or flat, farming. In Europe this type of farming was used in those river areas where flooding occurred in the spring, and the water level in the ground was quite close to the surface year round. Special bread grains as well as a special wheeled plow had been developed to farm this type of land, and all these tools were brought over to the Hudson Valley by the early settlers. They chose the Esopus Valley, and also the Mohawk River valley, to farm because these areas were very similar to the areas they had farmed in Europe.

Platt farming was not like upland farming. The flooding of the land each spring did away with the need to manure the fields, as fresh nutrients were added by nature in the flooding process. Because of the high water table, the farmer, using specially developed European grains, was able to successfully plant and harvest two grain crops each year; something that upland farmers in the American northeast were not able to do. The 'platt' farmer was able to get two marketable crops from a given acreage with less effort than the upland farmer. Because the planting time was split between spring and fall, the combined crops could be planted and processed by a smaller number of men, this increasing the farmers profit.

The European bread grains (wheat, rye and barley) developed by platt farmers had a rather short growing period to fit the shorter summer of northern Europe. Using these grains, the farmer was able to plant his first crop in the late spring (late April or early May) and harvest it in late September. However, the harvested grain was not fully ripened in the field. It was cut with the sith, taken to the large barn on the farmers homelot, and allowed to finish ripening and drying on poles placed in the upper areas of the barn.

Immediately after harvesting the crop, the farmer returned to the fields and planted a second, winter, crop. The relatively warm days of October and November allowed the winter crop to grow and 'harden' so that it could survive the winter. In the spring, around late April, this winter crop was harvested and brought into the barn to ripen and dry.

The farmer threshed the fall crop on the wooden floor of his barn after he had finished the new planting. It was winnowed of chaff and the grain was swept into wooden barrels for delivery to the miller. The miller ground and sifted the grain to clean it, and packed it in new barrels for the farmer. These barrels were tarred to make them water tight and were transported by the farmer to the Albany grain market which served the major cities of New England, Boston, Hartford and Provencetown.
The average farmer transported over one hundred bushels of grain to market, usually by boat from Kingston. He, and his family, would accompany the grain on the trip to Albany which usually took about two days.

Here he sold the barrels of grain to a grain merchant who established the price of grain on the quantity of the harvest, how fine the grain was ground and the cleanliness of the grain. Esopus flour was noted as being very fine and clean, thus the Esopus Valley farmer was more or less guaranteed top money for his product. The farmer was paid in New York State Pound currency, one of the most stable monetary units in colonial America.

While the farmer was dealing with the Albany grain merchants, his wife was busy shopping for the necessities of life, plate ware for the table, spoons and knives, needed kettles, and perhaps furniture. There was also the possibility of fine linens from Europe for a teenage daughter preparing her dowry. The money not needed for the Albany purchases was brought home and used to purchase services and articles in the Hurley area.