What City Folk Think of Schoharie County

I searched on Google today and found this New York Times article from 1991 about Sloughters.

Take a look:

Along the sinuous West Middleburgh Road that makes its way through the rolling green hills lie crumbling old shacks surrounded by chickens, decaying barns, rusting farm machinery and tiny overgrown family plots. Here, families with names that have been known in these parts for more than 200 years live lives that often seem untouched by modernity. They also live with a stigma, perhaps racial in origin, that has branded them as the underclass of rural Schoharie County.

"If you are a sloughter you are not much of anything," said Joan Mongelluzzo, as she stood on the dirt section of the road that runs past her small house. "It means you are of ill repute, you drink too much and bum around. You are lazy, no good altogether. You might get your teeth knocked out if you say it to the wrong person."

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Check Out the Schoharie Co. Young Republicans

We're trying to create a Young Republicans club for our County. If interested, please visit our new blog. Send us an email if interested, and you can write for us if you'd like.

We're going to attempt to have a meeting in May.

http://sloughterrepublicans.blogspot.com/


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What Exactly is a Sloughter?

Half of this article explains what exactly a “sloughter” is, and the other half is about Sloughter’s Instant History of Schoharie County, written by Lester and Anne Hendrix.

What does “sloughter” mean exactly. Well, there are a few definitions. One definition states that a sloughter is a disreputable person, a horse thief, or a traitor. Another states that a sloughter is a native to the county, or is a resident of West Middleburgh. Actually, a teacher by the name of Catherine S. Lawrence said that people from Schoharie were “ignorant and illiterate. They were a neglected, despised class of people...” Yet another definition of a sloughter. Anne Hendrix gives her own definition. She says that “you’re a sloughter if your heart is in Schoharie County.” In recent years, though, the word sloughter is somewhat of a compliment.

The second part of the article explains the Sloughter’s Instant History of Schoharie County. The book is an amalgam of local history, tracing the settlement of Schoharie County to the flooding of Gilboa for the New York City reservoir a half century ago. It includes biographies, legends, folklore, and provides population figures for nearly 200 years. Thirty-four pictures and drawings are contained within the book, and so are five maps, and chapters about the settlements by the Germans, and the Dutch.

Although this book summarizes the history of Schoharie county, you cannot compare it to local historians who know the history of Schoharie County backwards and forwards.

The Great Sheriff Murder of 1931

At 8 o’clock on a July morning, Herbert Johnson, 19, was passing through Sharon Springs, when he was pulled over by police. Johnson was traveling from Chicago to Providence.

Johnson, a five-time criminal, was convicted of driving without a license and was given fifteen days in jail. Unknown to the local police, Johnson was wanted for burglaries in Chicago and for stealing the car that he was driving. Johnson and his passenger, Henry Walker, 21, were transported to jail in Schoharie.

When in Schoharie, Sheriff Henry Steadman of Middleburgh was inspecting Walker’s clothes when Johnson took out a gun and ordered Steadman to put up his hands. Johnson shot Steadman, who was attempting to get his own gun. Johnson then ran off. Sheriff Steadman ran after him in pain and fired a few shots, but collapsed on a staircase.

Herbert Johnson escaped into the woods but was captured by a group of local residents and police.

Sheriff Steadman died sixteen hours after being hit and was survived by his three children and his wife.

The Board of Supervisors decided to send Johnson to the Schenectady County Jail before his trial. On January 13, 1931, to a packed crowd, Johnson was convicted of murder and was executed on July 23 at Sing Sing.

Reference: The Sloughter’s History of Schoharie County, Lester Hendrix, The Schoharie County Historical Society, 1994.

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