Talk on Historic Hudson River Ferry Operations at Gomez Mill House

MARLBORO, N.Y. – On September 20th, at 1:00 p.m., James Berkise, local historian and Marlborough resident, will share findings from his recent investigations into a long-running ferry operated by Gomez Mill House residents Wolvert and William Ecker, and a turnpike extending from that ferry dock over the Marlborough Mountain to the village of Plattekill.

Berkise received his Bachelor’s in Engineering from RPI and his Masters in Library Science from Pratt Institute. For over 34 years, he worked as a professional researcher and corporate librarian at prestigious institutions: AT&T Bell Labs, NEC Research Institute, and NERA – a Marsh and McLennan subsidiary.

Since his childhood in Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Valley where he observed the mining of coal that the D&H Canal carried to the Hudson River, James has been interested in waterway transportation: its infrastructure, how it evolved, and how it shaped the development for communities. His interest in Ecker’s ferry comes from a 1998 book, “When Horses Walked on Water,” by Art Cohn of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, in which a map shows a horse powered ferry coming out of Wappinger Creek near New Hamburg, New York. Berkise initiated his research by searching for the west shore landing in Marlborough.

Gomez Mill House resident Wolvert Ecker operated the original ferry service at this location until 1799. In the early 1800s other local businessmen purchased it, eventually creating the Hampton-Hamburg Ferry Co. Gomez Mill House resident Wm. Henry Armstrong’s younger brothers, D. Maitland and Gouverneur were shareholders in that company in the late 1860s.

For more information contact the Gomez Mill House office at (845) 236-3126, email gomezmillhouse@gomez.org or visit www.gomez.org.

The Gomez Mill House Museum and Historic Site is located at 11 Mill House Road, directly off 9W, in Marlboro, NY. General admission to the Museum is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors 55 or older, $4 for students with ID and children age 7 to 17; children under age 5 admitted free. Reservations are required for groups of 10 or more.

 
The mission of the Gomez Foundation for Mill House is to preserve the 300 year old Gomez Mill House—the oldest standing Jewish dwelling in North America and home to Patriots, Preservationists, Artisans and Social Activists—as a significant regional and national-ranked museum, and to educate the public about the contributions of the site’s former owners to the multicultural history of the Hudson River Valley.