“The Clove” is my attempt to retell part of the story of Claudius Smith’s notorious gang of terrorists, the latest and probably not the last of historical fictions to deal with the subject. Over the years, there have been more than a few variations on the story. Most published versions I have come across have been in the form of 19th-century newspaper articles written with dubious research to sell copies. The facts are few and hazy, but the story is so good that writers drawn to it have added details that sometimes border on the unbelievable.
In one book I came across, “Claudius, the Cowboy of the Ramapo Valley” (1894). The facts come and go freely, with most place names, characters, and events summoned up from the author’s imagination. The book is also notable for its ridiculous portrayal of slaves and black speech. It is a beautiful looking little book however and it came with some yellowed notes inserted by another early Clove researcher. I hope they didn’t take the text as factual.
An article from the Middletown Daily Argus, Apr 11, 1896, was enjoyable and a little more realistic. It features Claudius Smith’s legendary boots as homicidal time-traveling (and haunted) footwear. The boots come into the possession of Brainard Pierson who puts them on, gets bitten by a rattlesnake, and dies in the middle of the road. The boots are then stolen from the Pierson family, and George, the son of Brainard, finds the thief wearing the boots, dead in a similar fashion. After a few years another Pierson relative “takes a fancy” to the boots and although aware of the legend says “There ain’t no rattlesnakes in our section, I’ll risk the haunt.” The author of this story cleverly adds a twist. The relative does not suffer the curse because he gifts the boots to his rich Father-in-Law. He went for a walk with them and didn’t come back alive, snakes again. Son-in-Law inherits his wife’s family fortune. Is it murder?
The article is an embellishment of the story, one of many that help to elevate it to mythological levels. There are layers of stories built upon each other over the years (centuries!) that serve to retain interest in the actual facts, whatever they are.
In 1991 one of Claudius Smith’s descendants, Elizabeth S. Smith, did a presentation to the Orange County Genealogical Society. In it she attempts to separate the fact from the fiction, admitting the actual crimes and refuting the published fictional accounts including the book I mention earlier. She asks the question, “Why spoil a good story by telling the truth?” Her presentation is a wealth of historical research that really helped me in trying to be as true as I could while adding personalities to the characters in my version of the story. When “The Clove” ever gets published, I hope it is at least as fun to read as some of the old accounts I’ve come to love.
Leave a Reply