Category: Hudson Valley
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Tuxedo Historical Society
On Feb 15th, 2026, we traveled down to the Tuxedo Historical Society to see the opening of their exhibit “The Continental Road & The Ramapough Pass in the Revolutionary War 1777-1780.” It was great to see the information presented, including a beautiful map of the area with the Taverns highlighted along Clove…
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New List of Posts
Here is a synopsis of all the posts. I was thinking I hadn’t done enough until I saw how many were here.
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American History
Part of “The Clove” follows the Earl Brothers, Ben and Richard, traveling to Ulster County to purchase millstones. They journey through the New Paltz area and witness vast, fertile farmlands owned by the descendants of the founding Huguenots, worked by hundreds of enslaved people. In 1790, New Paltz, 77 slaveholders…
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Just Friends
When I started working on The Clove I had no idea that I would be visiting my family’s Quaker roots to the extent that I have. Part of the book deals with a cross-country journey taken by my 5X GGrandfather Ben Earl and his brother Richard. The trip will take…
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The Halloween Episode
A very cool aspect of researching The Clove has been the ability to drive to many of the locations where the events took place. A crucial part of the book takes place when Ben and Richard Earl travel to Alligerville, NY to pick up millstones made by Benjamin Alliger and…
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August 8, 1778
The date of the robbery at the Earls (and Woodhulls). Right in the middle of a Hudson Valley summer. Claudius Smith was 43 years old and married to Abigail Rumsey (41). They had married in 1762, and Abigail was not the mother of Claudius’s sons and fellow gang members. James…
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Where’s it at?
I love real, physical maps. The digital, super-accurate versions have placed a wealth of information options at the touch of your phone. To me, they are cold and devoid of personality. There’s nothing like the self importance a kid feels unfolding a three-by-four-foot state map when they are in the…
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My historian Dad.
My father, Walter Brophy Earl, didn’t say much. I learned most about him through my Mother or by observing him. He was essentially an eccentric nerd as a young man, helping his parents, Cornwall’s Town Clerks, collecting stamps, and a love of projecting movies outdoors for a neighborhood theater. He…
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Backwoods Butchershop
Many years ago when I was a student at the Culinary Institute of America the scheme was that the newer student/chefs start off learning the basics of all things related to cuisine and by the end of your time there you are designing your own restaurant and cooking in one…
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Field Work
Back in 2023 I took a trip down to Tuxedo Park in Rockland County to visit the site of the hangout of the villains in my novel. Claudius Smith’s “Den” is a well-documented location on one of the peaks that make up Dunderberg Mountain in the middle of Harriman State…