The Village of Delhi will be performing Fire Hydrant Testing on Phoebe Lane starting at 9:00 am on Monday, November 24, 2025. During this time the following streets may experience cloudy water: Crestwood Dr, Delview Terrace, Delview Terrace Ext, and Phoebe Lane. If this happens, please run your water until it becomes clear.
Please call the Village Clerk’s office with any questions at (607) 746-2258.
The Village of Delhi is now accepting applications to obtain one of the eight permitted parking spaces available. Applications may be obtained from the Village Clerk in Village Hall. Please be aware that the permits will be issued on a first come basis, and that there are certain requirements that must be met for the applications to be considered. A monthly fee of $50 will be assessed for those individuals receiving these permits.
Jeffrey Gearhart
Village Mayor
More than once in my 50 years of experience with gravestones and cemeteries, someone has told me they discovered an abandoned gravestone. The first one for me was a Coffin Man gravestone. If you’re not familiar with Coffin Man and the Coffin Group of gravestone carvers and would like to know more, please email me at historian@villageofdelhi.com.
Around 1996 I received a call from the director of DCHA, Liz Callahan, telling me someone had found an intact gravestone on the floor of their barn. People usually assume either the gravestone was stolen or someone was buried in a very inappropriate place. I went to see the gravestone and, to my surprise and delight, it was a Coffin Man stone, meaning it was carved by the itinerant gravestone carver now known as Coffin Man. The gravestone belonged to George Fisher, a Hessian soldier in the Revolutionary War, and one of the first settlers of Delhi in 1785. Mary Dexter, from Cortland, NY, named the carver ‘Coffin Man’ by the style of his carving and his use of a small coffin, or coffins, carved at the bottom of a gravestone. Mary was a tireless researcher in the field of itinerant gravestone carver identification and discovered several gravestones around Delhi. George Fisher was originally buried in Old Delhi Burying Ground but reinterred in Woodland Cemetery with a Victorian era gravestone. The beautiful, hand crafted gravestone was removed and discarded on the floor of a barn.
Gravestones are unique in the world of art history because the artwork was contemporary and, for the most part, unsigned. Each carver, like each person, has a unique style of writing. Coffin Man frequently, but not always, carved a small upright coffin toward the bottom of the gravestone, sometimes with a small willow tree bending over the coffin. He also carved the number coffins for the number of bodies buried in the grave, frequently a woman with her child or children. Coffin Man worked in the Delhi area from 1800-1820.
That period was the late American Colonial era, shortly after the first Federal census in 1790, the time of settlement in upstate New York. When America was organized the Founder's wanted to show the world that the new Americans had sophisticated ideals. To that end they adopted Greco-Roman symbols in both memorial art and in architecture including decorative elements of interior design. The Willow and Urn are most familiar on gravestones. The Willow represents rebirth and the Urn represents earthly remains. Coffin Man was a primitive carver and used post Elizabethan wording like “Here lies the Body of”, or in a later period simply “Here lies” . In the tympanum of the gravestone, which is the arch space above the inscription, he carved the Willow and Urn or sometimes a stylized Urn. He used popular carving techniques, like walking the chisel, to create a zigzag pattern, and stippling, a pattern of tiny dots, creating a frame around the name and dates of the inscription. Coffin Man traveled along the turnpikes around Delhi with 2 apprentices, thought to be family members, possibly son and grandson. Gravestone carving was a family business and apprenticeship was an accepted way to learn a trade. There’s one Coffin Man gravestone still marking a grave in Delhi. All Coffin Group work in this area is found along turnpikes.
Robert Bates, Flats Cemetery, Delhi, NY.
Here lies Robert
Bates Died August
24 1818 AEt 53 y
The Village of Delhi wants to remind Village residents of the following: It shall be the duty of the owner and/or occupant of every parcel of real estate abutting a public sidewalk, whether the parcel of real estate is occupied by a structure or not, to keep said sidewalk free from snow and ice for the full width and length of such sidewalk. Removal is required within 24 hours after a snowfall. Failure to clear sidewalks will result in the Village removing the snow and ice at the expense of the property owner.
The Village of Delhi wants to remind Village residents of the following: Parking is not permitted on Village Streets from December 1, 2025 to April 1, 2026 between the hours of 2:00 AM to 6:00 AM. All vehicles parked on Village Streets during this time will be issued parking tickets.
The Village of Delhi is accepting bids for a contractor to perform snow & ice removal from the sidewalks of identified properties throughout the winter season. Bidder must be insured. Sealed bids (envelope marked snow & ice removal bid) must be received at the Village Clerk’s office, PO Box 328, 9 Court Street, Delhi, NY 13753 no later than Monday, November 3, 2025 by 4:00 pm. Bids will be reviewed by the Village of Delhi’s Board of Trustees. The Village of Delhi reserves the right to reject any and all bids.
A friend of mine, Diane Galusha, President of the Middletown Historical Society, recently mailed me this Delhi card. The Delaware Republican newspaper office was in the former Bishop and Hill law office on Main St, where the Lost Bookstore is now. Robert McIntosh, with his wife and children, lived in the apartment over the newspaper office. The eldest girl was Kate and her younger sister was Helen, a very close friend of my mother, Alta McCaffrey. In March 1995 I visited my Mom and, for a reason I can’t remember, went down to the cellar. I was surprised to find a round, Victorian looking hat box. I took it upstairs and my Mom said it contained the dairies of Kate McIntosh. I asked her why she had them and Mom said because after Kate died her family thought Helen might come to Walton to visit my Mom and take Kate’s diaries home with her. Helen didn’t come and/or didn’t want the diaries. So I brought them home with me. The very next year was the January flood of 1996 and my mother’s cellar took on 3 feet of water.
I read every diary, starting in 1918, when Kate was 18 years old, the year she graduated from high school. She had the world by the tail and was eagerly anticipating going to Albany Business College. She had no reason to think her life wouldn’t be rosy. Then her father died, her brothers and sister got married and moved away and Kate became the daughter who stayed home to care for their mother.
Kate wrote in a diary nearly every day, every year from 1918 to 1969. Some diaries were 5 year diaries but most were only 1 year. As a daughter of a newspaper editor, she wrote down everything. She worked as a secretary at one of the insurance offices in Delhi, waited on table at Kiwanis suppers and mentioned the names of her friends in Delhi. She kept a record of when she had the window screens taken off and the storm windows put up and the cost. She bought a pink blouse for $2.50 at Stewart’s store and baked cookies or made a pie in the evening, after supper. She didn’t drive but in 1954 she went with friends to DeLancey to “look at the television”. She knew before most people that Truman had beaten Dewey in 1948 because she listened to the election on the radio. Kate’s mother eventually went to the Infirmary because she couldn’t manage the stairs to their apartment. Kate got a ride on Saturday mornings to visit her mother there.
Life goes on and in 1969, when I was 21 years old and living in Delhi, my Mom came to visit me and asked me to go with her to visit Kate because she wasn’t feeling well. I remember climbing the steep stairs to Kate’s apartment but no other details of that visit.
When I got around to reading the diary of 1969 I noticed there weren’t very many pages filled in. Her last diary entry was January 26 and read “Alta and Marianne McCaffrey came to visit me today”. Five days later Kate died. Mine was the last name she wrote in her diary. I became a diarist and donated Kate’s diaries to DCHA in 1996.
The Village of Delhi Zoning Board of Appeals will be holding a Public Hearing, on October 14, 2025 at 6:00 pm, Village Hall, 9 Court St, regarding a Variance Application by Yuskei Murayama for Cherry Hill. Variance information is available for review at the Village Clerk’s Office at Village Hall.
The Village of Delhi Board of Trustees will be holding a Public Meeting, on October 6, 2025 at 5:30 pm, Village Hall, 9 Court St, regarding the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) grant.
It is with sadness that the Village of Delhi announces the passing of former Mayor Samudrala. We wish to offer our condolences and prayers to his family and friends. It was well- known that he cared deeply for the Village and its residents, working to ensure that the best interests of all were served. His dedication and service will be remembered.
I’ve been reading a treatise by John D. Monroe,“The Settlement of Delhi”. Our Delhi story starts in the 1600’s in what the Dutch called New Netherlands, now known as New York State. In 1609 Henry Hudson sailed up the Hudson River on a ship named the Half Moon, from New York City, then called New Amsterdam, named for the Dutch city of Amsterdam, to Albany, which the Dutch called Fort Orange, named for William of Orange. It was known as The Age of Exploration. Henry claimed everything from the western border of Massachusetts to the east side of the West Branch of the Delaware River for the Dutch. Delaware Academy is on the east side of the Delaware River and SUNY Delhi is on the west side. In 1664 the British took New York City from the Dutch. They put a gunboat in New York harbor and the Dutch surrendered without a battle, so they effectively exchanged one colonial power for another.
During the late 1600’s millions of acres of American land were under Dutch then English control. Land owners were called Patroons with manorial rights, meaning they could do pretty much anything they wanted. After the English took over they continued the Patroon system because they were making lots of money. They controlled the lives of thousands of immigrant tenant farmers, as indentured servants, and enslaved persons from the Dutch West India Company, who worked the land. Settlers in other New York counties outside the Patroon system and in states bordering New York, like Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, could live on a piece of land they could rent and eventually buy. This was the only part of 17th, 18th and 19th century America where this feudal system of land management endured for generations. All the land around Delhi was either the Whitesborough, Franklin or Verplank Patent.
Kingston, in Ulster County, NY was settled in 1652 and became the first Capitol of New York State in 1777. During the Revolutionary War Kingston was burned by the British. As a result of the loss of their homes and livelihoods, land in Delaware County was offered to them by Robert Livingston as a desirable place to live. Their Delaware County home was named New Kingston. Only we don’t say ‘New’, it’s more like ‘Nuh’ Kingston.
The late 1700’s brought a surge of settlers to our rugged wilderness in the hope of finding a home to settle down, farm and raise a family. Some men received land here instead of payment for service during the Revolutionary War. People traveled here using the Hudson and Delaware Rivers, the Albany Post Road, between Albany and New York City, Native People’s footpaths, and they turned wagon tracks into roads along the way. In the 1800’s many toll roads, called turnpikes, made travel easier for the people who were determined to move west. The gates used on early toll roads were the old military weapons called pikes. It was a long pole with sharp spikes and could be attached horizontally to a tree stump. When the toll was paid, the pike was turned. Turnpike.
The Susquehanna Turnpike, started in 1800 in Catskill, Greene County, NY, then through Delaware County by way of Stamford, Treadwell and Franklin to Unadilla and the Susquehanna River in Otsego County. In Delhi, Elk Creek Road was a ‘Shunpike’, a road created by travelers who refused to pay the toll on the turnpike. Below is a schedule of fares on the Susquehanna turnpike.The letter f is pronounced like s and a score is 20. There are several roadside markers following the paths of local turnpikes. A fun car game is to find Historic Markers along the roads your family travels. You never can tell what you’ll find.
The Village of Delhi will be Flushing Fire Hydrants on the following dates:
October 1, 2025
October 8, 2025
October 15, 2025
October 22, 2025
During this time you may experience cloudy water. If this happens, please run your water until it becomes clear.
If you have any questions please contact the Clerk’s office at (607) 746-2258.
Our water/sewer billing host company had an issue with their email server which caused emails to be sent to every resident that has water/sewer email billing. If you have any questions you may call the Clerk’s Office at (607) 746-2258.
Village of Delhi Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting on August 21, 2025 at 6:00 pm, Village Hall, for the purpose of interviewing job applicants for the Wastewater Treatment Plant. The meeting will open as a public meeting and immediately go into executive session.
Many of you know where Phoebe Lane is. Some people drive past it or on it several times a week. The Public Safety Building is at the end of Phoebe Lane. A very pretty name for a street and it’s the only street in the Village of Delhi named for a woman. I believe the street was built circa 1920-1940 but I don’t know the exact date. Maggie Hoag Road is the only road in the Town of Delhi named for a woman, that I’m aware of, but that’s another story.
At the intersection of Meredith Street, formerly called the Whig Road, named for a political party popular in the early settlement period, and Delview Terrace Extension was the Flower’s farm. Do you remember a faded reddish shingled farm house, which is gone now, on the northeast corner? I can’t find a map showing the exact location of the farmhouse but that may be where the Flower, also spelled Flowers, family lived. Joseph and Phoebe Flower had at least 4 children, Antoinette, William, Henry and Sophia. There may have been other children not named on the 1855 census.
It wasn’t unusual for farms to have a small family burial ground not far from their home. The Flower’s had their burial ground behind the house in a shady corner of their home field. When the farm land was developed the burial ground was discovered. It was necessary to remove the remains of 4 people buried there. The burial ground had 2 small gravestones with lambs, used for children’s gravestones, plus another grave marker that didn’t have a name but I suspect was for Joseph. The 4th gravestone is a small, 2 piece monument with a slightly rounded top and the inscription: Phebe Wife of Joseph Flower Died May 1, 1878 aged 62 years. All 4 grave occupants were removed from the Flower’s burial ground to Woodland Cemetery where they now rest in peace. The street is called Phoebe Lane in her memory.
This and many more stories can be found in John Raitt’s “Ruts in the Road” books. This story is from volume 4. The Flower family can be found going back to the 1500’s in Wales, where many Flower families still live.
