NEW YORK FOLKLORE QUARTERLY
Vol. II, No. 3, August, 1946

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THE DUTCH HAD A WORD FOR IT
Agnes Scott Smith

ARE YOU interested in things Dutch? Then, sometime when you are motoring along the beautiful Hudson valley, turn off at Kingston on the road to Ellenville. Three miles outside the old colonial city, you will come to the unique and pretty little village of Hurley, with its maple-shaded main street flanked by a number of fine examples of old stone houses with broad double doors and flat Dutch dormer windows.

You may remember Hurley as the village that suddenly found itself the capital of New York State on October 16, 1777, when the British burned Kingston. For it was to Hurley that the governing fathers fled, taking with them important documents, and from there they directed the affairs of the state for several weeks. But it is not of Hurley’s historic importance that I intend to write, because anyone interested in these facts can find them easily enough in any good history of colonial New York.

It is the Hurley which clings with tenacious pride to its many old Dutch traditions that you will be really interested in, I hope. It is quite possible that no other village in the state has stayed so consistently Dutch. Even as late as 1875, a large portion of the people of the community spoke Dutch in preference to heavily accented English, at least when conversing among themselves. The family names, neatly typed above the mail boxes in the little post office — Newkirk, De Witt, Wynkoop, Houghtaling, Myer, Ten Eyck, Van Sickle, Brink — are in themselves an explanation of why that was so.

In 1782 General Washington, en route to visit the rebuilt town of Kingston, was warmly welcomed as he passed through Hurley. As the General approached the village from Stone Ridge, where he had spent the night with a friend, he was met by a welcoming delegation who escorted him to the famous Houghtaling Inn. (It is still standing, though now used as a private residence.) Colonel Wynkoop, delegated to make the welcoming speech, did so at length, standing well inside the doorway of the tavern, his back warmed by the roaring fire. The General listened patiently, sitting on his horse in the cold November rain, not understanding a syllable, for the whole of Colonel Wynkoop’s speech was in the only language he spoke fluently — Dutch. And yet, at that time Hurley had been under British control for more than a hundred years. And even today, in moments of stress or excitement, a Dutch phrase or expletive or oath is more apt to pop out at you than its less expressive English equivalent....

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