To the Editor:
The New Scotland Historical Association is dedicating two new historical markers on Saturday, Sept. 24.

At 10 a.m., the ceremony for the dedication of the Horton Falls marker will take place. Then, at 10:45 a.m., the marker commemorating the Tory robbery at the Cooper Farm will be dedicated.

Horton Falls is named after Robert E. Horton (1875-1945), widely regarded as the “Father of Modern Hydrology.” Horton lived near the 80-foot waterfall located a few miles east of Voorheesville. Horton used the energy from the waterfall to spin a DC [direct current] electricity-generating turbine to provide the current necessary to heat, light, and power his house and his laboratory.

The Cooper Farm was the site of a robbery committed by a group of Tories. In June of 1779, the Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies in Albany was informed that “a party of robbers had been at the house of Jacob Cooper at the Hellebergh” and, while attempting to break into the house, Jacob Cooper shot and killed one of them, and requested that “a scout be sent … to go in search of said Robbers.”

Arthur R. Gregg reported in his book, “Old Hellebergh,” published in 1936 by Altamont Enterprise Publishers, the Committee for Conspiracies stated in its minutes that the Helderbergs were “regular nests of robberies and hatcheries of treasonable designs.”

The public is invited to attend the dedication of the new historical markers identifying these two important local sites.

Parking at the Robert E. Horton site on Krumkill Road is very limited, but parking for the Cooper Farm site will be at the Helderberg Workshop driveway at 353 Picard Road in New Scotland.

Judy Kimes

Publicist

New Scotland

Historical Association