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The Rev. Samuel Calthrop & Staghorn Point

In Skaneateles: History of Its Earliest Settlement and Reminiscences of Later Times (1902), author E.N. Leslie makes no mention of the Rev. Samuel Calthrop. Published in the same year, George Collin’s History: Town of Spafford gives Calthrop one passing mention as a cottager, and nothing more. And yet Calthrop is one of the most accomplished and interesting individuals to spend time on the shores of Skaneateles Lake.

The Rev. Calthrop’s day job was in Syracuse as minister at the May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church, from 1868 to 1911. Born in England, he had studied for the priesthood at Trinity College, Cambridge, but was not granted a degree because he would not accept the “Thirty-nine Articles of Religion” of the Church of England. The greater freedom of America and the Unitarian faith called to him.

He settled in the U.S. in 1853 and, after teaching for six years, he was ordained in the Unitarian ministry. In 1868, he came to Syracuse, as the successor to the Rev. Samuel May. From 1871 onward, he lived about two miles south of the city, on Primrose Hill, which was named for his wife, Elizabeth Primrose. It was an idyllic setting, described by a student who recalled his first visit:

“A long avenue winding around a charming, wooded hill. A gabled red brick house with high, diamond-paned windows opening in the middle; grapevines spreading down along the slope of the hill toward the railway below… On the lawn was an excellent tennis court and a beautiful great elm which was an unending joy.”

“The door opened and there he stood, something over six feet tall, in clerical garb, a white silk handkerchief about his neck, head thrown back, light blue-gray eyes, kindly twinkling behind gold-rimmed glasses, face and head almost hidden by the large square beard and the mass of curly almost white hair through which but here and there one could detect traces of the warm reddish yellow of former years — a fine figure with broad shoulders, and spirit and vigor written in every line.”

Calthrop’s successor at May Memorial, the Rev. John H. Applebee, wrote:

“Dr. Calthrop was amazingly many-sided. Nothing of human concern was foreign to him. His fund of general information was inexhaustible, and there was nothing about which he had not some interesting and stimulating comment. He was a great preacher and, perhaps, even a greater teacher. He was a profound classical scholar and a scientist deeply versed in geology, botany and astronomy. He needed no text when teaching Homer and Virgil for he knew much of The Iliad and The Aeneid by heart.”

On the Lake

As for Rev. Calthrop’s coming to Skaneateles, we have clues from the local press as to when and why. In July of 1880, William Beauchamp wrote:

“At Stag-horn Point, Col. Jenney of Syracuse has a large camp, and a boat came off to get the mail. A red tin canister containing it was thrown into the water, and quickly picked up. Other camps were passed, though none so large…”

Col. Edwin Jenney was a member of Calthrop’s congregation at May Memorial; I would not be surprised to learn that Calthrop was among this “large” party of campers, or that he was told of the point’s charms when the campers returned to Syracuse.

In May of 1882, the local press reported “Stag Horn Point, Skaneateles Lake, has been purchased by Syracuse parties, who are building residences and a dock there.”

Two months later, “Skaneateles Lake is attracting a large number of visitors and already quite a number of Syracusans have taken up their abode for the summer along its inviting shores… Rev. Dr. Calthrop is at Stag Horn Point and is preparing for a large party of Syracusans who are to follow him soon.”

Among the things Caltrop loved at Primrose Cottage were rowing, sailing and fishing. And he drew lessons from all of them. In 1905, he wrote:

“Some years ago I saw, near the shore of my beloved Skaneateles Lake, a very large black bass lying motionless about three feet from the top of the water. It paid no attention to my boat, so I gently put down my oar to touch it. It quietly moved just out of reach, and as quietly came back again as soon as my oar was removed. This it did again and again. Just below it, it had cleared a space of some feet at the bottom of the lake where it had laid its eggs. It was watching its beloved young, and its mother-love had cast out all fear! It would have been a sin against all motherhood to touch that fish. Good Saint Francis of Assisi used to preach the gospel to his brothers, the fishes. I wonder if he knew at all how closely that which was best in them was akin to that which was best in him.”

The Rev. Calthrop was famous for inviting friends, neighbors and members of his congregation to Primrose Hill for “basket sociables,” and so it was no surprise when he invited members of the New York State Chess Association, holding its mid-summer meetings at the Packwood House, to his summer home at Stag Horn Point.

Chess

In England, Calthrop began his interest in chess by studying openings with a childhood friend. At Trinity College, he was noted as one of the best players in the school. After his move to America, Calthrop was called “the most brilliant and original amateur who has ever yet arisen in the provinces” by Howard Staunton, for whom the Staunton pattern of chess pieces is named.

In 1857, Calthrop was named as one of the best 16 players in America and invited to play in the first American Chess Congress in New York City. After the tournament, the winner, Paul Morphy, one of the greatest players ever, played “casual” games with the others, including a game with Calthrop. (Morphy won.)

In 1889, when the New York State Chess Association scheduled its mid-summer tourney in Skaneateles, the local press reported, “The Rev. S.R. Calthrop of Syracuse is at his summer home ‘Stag Horn’ on Skaneateles Lake. He is studying in rustic retirement, and rubbing off the rust from his armor in preparation for the tourney.”

The rust removed, Calthrop did not win the tourney, but he did take a game “remarkable for its brilliancy” from Samuel Lipschütz, then the New York State and U.S. champion. More famously, he hosted the entire party at Primrose Cottage. The steamer Ossahinta was chartered for the trip; sandwiches, non-intoxicating drinks and ice cream were served by Elizabeth Calthrop.

The Albany Sunday Express reported, “The exercises of Tuesday afternoon up the lake were enjoyable; the visit to Dr. Calthrop’s summer camp at Stag Horn Point was particularly so; the genial philosopher and scientist is never more admirable than when entertaining guests. By the aid of his telescope he conjured up a spot on the sun and exhibited it to an appreciative audience; and some of our fourth-class players saw a great deal farther than when they were playing chess.” (An avid astronomer, Calthrop was one of the first to explore the idea that sunspots affect the weather on Earth.)

In 1891, the tourney returned to Skaneateles, and this time Calthrop made it into the group photo. Calthrop won a game against Albert Hodges, who would go on to become the New York and U.S. champion. He again hosted the players, as reported by the English-Irish-American-Canadian player, William Pollock, a resident of Baltimore and winner of the Irish Championship. Pollack was a colorful character known for enjoying the creation of brilliant combinations more than actually winning.

In a newspaper column Pollock wrote, “A large party enjoyed a most glorious excursion on the lake, feasting and conversation being varied with minstrel songs, chess, cards, a visit to Dr. Calthrop’s mountain camp… the trip was found to be an admirable antidote to the somewhat fierce festivities of the previous night.”

Among the diversions that day, Calthrop took William Steinitz, the world champion of chess, out for a row onto the lake so that he might see “the Swiss like scenery.”

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In 1901, Calthrop suffered a broken leg and spent much of the summer on the couch at Primrose Hill. But, the Unitarian Unity magazine reported, “As soon as it was practicable to remove the plaster cast from the injured member he went down to his beloved camp at Staghorn Point on the shores of Skaneateles Lake, from which now come cheerful reports, showing that he is gradually recovering the use of the stiffened knee. He can now get in and out of his boat unassisted and is displaying his wonted skills as a fisherman.”

In later years, the cottage was opened by his daughter, Edith Calthrop Bump, and her family.

Samuel Calthrop died quietly of pneumonia on May 11, 1917. He was 87 years old. His funeral was at May Memorial, the church he had served; it was decorated with flowers, roses, daffodils, tulips, violets and lilies, arranged in no order, but “running riot everywhere.”

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And what became of Primrose Hill?

In 1906, Edward I. Rice had a “coal pocket” built on a portion of the site, a structure of reinforced concrete which would hold 1,500 tons of coal to fuel the trains passing along the Lackawanna railroad tracks.

In 1910, the forest portion of the estate was clearcut; Patrick R. Kelly bought the land and supervised its clearance. Two of the oak trees were found to be more than 150 years old. “To the suggestion that those old trees are mighty valuable, he said he would give them away to anybody who would take them away—stumps and all.”

In 1922, the house was sold to C.W. Wiggins; the Syracuse Journal noted, “He will wreck it for the material. Then Miss Elizabeth T. Calthrop and Miss Anne Calthrop, daughters of the Calthrops, who have been the sole occupants of the house since the deaths of their parents in 1917, will sell the sand which the huge mound consists of and divide the property into building lots.”

The only traces left today are Calthrop and Primrose Avenues on the south side of Syracuse, between South Salina Street on the east and McKinley Park on the west.

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Sources & Further Reading

“The Good Doctors Calthrop, Applebee and Argow: A Sermon by the Rev. John C. Fuller, June 1, 1969”

“The Boyhood of Rev. Samuel Robert Calthrop, Compiled by His Daughter, Edith Calthrop Bump”

“Recollections of the Old Master,” Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, March 1923

“Calthrop, Samuel R.” by the Rev. John H. Applebee and Dr. William Sydney Thayer

“On Skaneateles Lake” by William Beauchamp, Baldwinsville Gazette, July 29, 1880

God and His World: Sermons on Evolution (1905) by the Rev. Samuel Calthrop

“Chess in Skaneateles, Part 1”

“Vacation Notes” in Unity, September 19, 1901

Show Time!

Over on YouTube, the “home movies” of Noah Allyn, narrated by Charlie Major. An amazing compilation.

Delightful Skineatalos

Excerpt from “Journal of a Trip to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, June 1812, by W.S.” from the Grosvenor Library Bulletin (Buffalo, N.Y.), June, 1926.

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From Dr. Beach’s to Sherwood’s ¹⁰¹ at the North end of Skineatolos is 7 miles.

“These seven miles are over very high hills and through deep vallies—the land excellent to the summits of the hills—and in rainy weather the roads like mutton tallow, in warmish weather. It rained hard at times and blew very hard from the Southeast. I went over these miles on a very knowing horse that I shall never ride again if I can help it.

“At Sherwood’s we had a very decent dinner consisting of mutton & broiled trout from the lake. We met here General [Philip] Van Courtland & a Mr. [Pierre Van Courtland] Vanwyck brother of the Recorder of New York. Van Courtland is a gentleman of the old school & was a revolutionary officer. He accompanied Gen’l S. [Sullivan] into the country in April 1779 & pointed out the course taken by the army. He showed us on the map the places where the battles were fought…

“He was very civil to us in explaining the country on the maps and giving its history as to settlements. He offered lands which he had in his military right 21 years ago for 50/100 cents which are worth an 100$ some places. He came out now, it seemed, to collect money for lands he had sold.

“Skineatalos Lake will some day be one of the most delightful places in the world. The lands are rich, and rise very gradually from the shores on all sides. The lake is 15 miles long & about one to 3 in breadth. The whole surface was covered with white caps. Just as we were departing it came on to rain again & continued to rain very hard all the way to Auburn 7 miles.”

¹⁰¹ [John] Fowler stopped here in 1831, but Maude in 1800 went two miles beyond. The place was first settled in 1793. Others have had the same trouble as W.S. in spelling the name.

Spelling

“Where is the School-master? — A paper came through the Post-office here on Tuesday with the word Skaneateles spelt as follows: ‘Schenieatleus.’ We have seen Skaneateles spelt all sorts of ways, but none have quite equalled this.”

— The Democrat, April 14, 1864

Dragons

“Among the fireworks announced for the 4th of July, in Skaneateles, N.Y., are four splendid pounder parachute rockets with stars which change color and are supported in the air by baloons, and a combat between two firey dragons in mid air.”

— Schenectady Daily Evening Star, June 23, 1868

On the Big Screen

More than 1,300 vintage postcards and photos of Skaneateles are now showing — with a new view into history every 10 seconds — at the Creamery Museum of the Skaneateles Historical Society. Pull up a chair and enjoy the show; the museum is open to the public Friday & Saturday, 1-4 p.m. Drawn from the collections of the Society and generous donors, these images are a continuous and fascinating tour of the Village as it was in the 19th and 20th centuries.

At Home with the Willetts

What is today Roosevelt Hall was owned by Anson Lapham from 1858 to 1876. He called it “Lake Home” and after his death it passed to his widow, Amie Willietts. In 1878, she sold the home to her son, William R. Willetts, who owned the home until 1892. The photo above dates from that year. The artwork above the mantel is “The Vintage Festival in Ancient Rome” by Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, shown below.

The print to the left of the fireplace is “A Picture Gallery,” also by Alma Tadema.

The artwork to the right of the fireplace, partially obscured in the original photo of the room, is “The Sculpture Gallery,” again by Alma Tadema.

The photo below, also from 1892, is William’s daughter, Katherine Willetts, in the same room as above.

This post is a corrected version of an earlier post, from April 2023.

Reuel Smith House

For anyone with an interest in Skaneateles, architecture or art, this site is a treasure trove. Do visit.

A Visit from Kate Winslow

A group of Skaneateles children with actress Kate Winslow, whose appearances were often made “under the auspices of women of important social position.” This photograph, from the collection of Daisy Turner, probably memorializes one such sponsored visit.

The Cast of Players, by the Numbers

1.  Mary Fitch was the sister of Lucy Fitch. Comfortably wealthy, the Fitch sisters traveled to Europe and Bermuda, and were very much “society” in Skaneateles. They lived on West Lake Street and the famous white boathouse was on their lakeside lawn.

2. Charles Poor was the son of Charles and Cornelia Poor and summered in Willowbank, at the foot of Leitch Avenue, on Genesee Street.

3. Mrs. Winslow, a.k.a. Mrs. Erving “Kate” Winslow, of Boston, was a popular actress in England and America. After leaving the stage, she gave dramatic readings in theaters and in the homes of wealthy patrons, and elocution and acting lessons to young women.

4. Mabel Allen Avery was the daughter of Georgia H. Avery.

5. Hope Norton may be Evermont Hope Norton, of Richmond, Virginia, who became a stockbroker and then a railroad tycoon in Ecuador. (“Hope” was his mother’s maiden name.)

6. Allen Loney, of the Skaneateles Loney family; he and his wife went down with the Lusitania in 1915.

7. Daisy M. Turner was born in 1879 and is perhaps seven-years-old in the group photo, so it may date circa 1886. As an adult she was very well-to-do and a pillar of society. She lived in the village for almost 70 years, and traveled to Bermuda and Atlantic City for a change of scene.

8. Ernest Bartlett may be Ernest Charles Bartlett who became the proprietor of Bartlett’s Store in Borodino.

9. Rosamond Brockway, of Boston, attended the Emerson Collage of Oratory. Critics said she was “one of the very best elocutionists now before the public.” In 1893, she performed as a reader at Legg Hall, and was the guest of her uncle, E.A. Andrews, owner of the Packwood House.

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Note: This post had so many rabbit holes, I am surprised that I did not sprain an ankle.