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Martin Ostrander
Born C. February 2, 1818 Died January 13, 1883
Red Hook Lutheran Cemetery. Curved top marble tablet toward the center back of the main old section, near Brewster and Barringers.
Martin Ostrander was a farmer and farm laborer born around 1818, probably in Red Hook, to Johannes Ostrander and Catherine Like. He married Elizabeth Kipp (C. 25 Jan 1818–8 Jun 1877, possibly daughter of Jeremiah Kipp) and had only one child that lived to adulthood. Their only son David William Ostrander (1844–10 Nov 1919) would marry Mary Frances Hart in 1868, and they had at least five children together. Two of Martin’s grandchildren are buried with him– an unnamed infant granddaughter and a grandson named Frank who died in 1871. David’s children that lived to adulthood were Warren Ostrander 1884–1925, Fannie Ostrander Adsit 1837–1960 (Mrs. George), and Howard Ostrander born 1880.
In the 1875 New York State census of Red Hook, David is listed as family #265 and and Martin and Elizabeth are #266, indicating that they probably lived close by if not next door to each other. After Elizabeth died, Martin lived with his son’s family. David was a carpenter by trade while his father remained a laborer.
On August 12, 1871, William Pulver was found guilty by Judge Paulmeir in Red Hook of assault and battery on Martin Ostrander. Three days later on the 15th, two men, Richard Daw and John Conway, were arrested for “entering [Martin Ostrander’s] house and breaking his furniture.” The report did not say they broke in, so one wonders why they showed up and made a scene in such a way. Was it tied to Pulver’s assault?
By 1880 things were not going well for the Ostrander family. Elizabeth had died three years previous, and David and Mary had lost at least one child when David’s property, mortgaged to the Coon family, was foreclosed on.
After his death, Martin’s property was sold off to pay his debts, and David moved his family to Catskill where, per his obituary, he was the “bridge tender on the (Catskill) town bridge in this village for several years.”
The Crane building later became known as the Hobbs building. This photo of Kipp & Horton’s bar in the Hobbs building in the early part of the 20th century might be the same location where Martin passed away. HRH Archives.
1876 Red Hook map detail. “M. Ostrander” is marked on Prince between D.W. Kipp and R. Saulpaugh. The saloon might be where it’s marked “A. Crane” on Broadway on the corner of Prince where the parking lot is now.
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. "Red Hook [Township]" New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-4f46-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
In the late 19th century, Red Hook resident Nicholas R. “Nick” Hutton operated a saloon on the north end of what was at the time called the Crane building. This structure (which once housed a grocery story and was demolished in the 1960s) sat where the Red Hook Chamber info hut, the parking lot, and electric vehicle charging stations are today on the corner of Prince and Broadway. There was a bar downstairs in Hutton’s saloon, and upstairs there were pool and billiard tables. On Saturday, January 13, 1883, Martin Ostrander was seen staggering and walking with some difficulty from his house (which was just a few doors down on the other side of Prince Street) to the Crane building. The Red Hook Journal reported “He was helped into the saloon of N.R. Hutton, sat down in a chair, and a physician sent for, but before he arrived life was extinct.” Martin had died of heart disease. Edmund Bassett would recall “the day poor old Martin Ostrander died while sitting in a chair in this saloon. I saw him just after it happened while he was still in the chair.”
Martin was laid to rest at last beside his wife and two grandchildren.