Hugh White's Rosendale Cement

Hugh White's Rosendale Cement

The Rosendale natural cement industry can claim many connections with important 19th Century personalities. Hugh White, in whose honor the Rosendale hamlet of Whiteport is named, was one of these leaders. Canvass White, Hugh White’s older brother, discovered a type of limestone suitable for the manufacturing of a hydraulic cement while working on the construction of the Erie Canal. Canvass obtained a patent in 1820 for his “Water Lime Cement”. After the completion of the Erie Canal, Canvass White continued as an engineer in the construction of many other canal projects. It is said that Henry Clay, when asked to recommend an engineer for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, said “Get Canvass White; no man more competent, no man more capable. And while your faith in his ability and fidelity increases, your friendship will grow in affection.”

Hugh White, born in 1798 and eight years younger than Canvass, followed his brother into the cement manufacturing business. After graduating from Hamilton College in 1823 he clerked in the New York City law office of Col. Charles G. Haines and was admitted to the bar. But instead of practicing law he joined his brother in the manufacturing of ”Water Lime Cement” at the Chittenango cement works. With the completion of the Eire Canal in 1825, demand for natural cement decreased. Hugh White remained in charge of the Chittenango Cement works for several years shipping the ‘Water Lime’ cement via the Erie Canal.

While Hugh was taking care of the cement works in Chittenango, Canvass was directing his attention to the development of the water power potential at the falls at Cohoes, NY. In 1826, Canvass White became the first president of the Cohoes Company. Hugh eventually followed his brother to Cohoes, moving to Waterford in 1830, where he opened a new cement works and became the manager of the Cohoes Company. During the six years between 1830 and 1836, in addition to managing the Cohoes Company and the cement works, Hugh White operated a saw mill and a flour mill at the Cohoes falls.

In 1836 Hugh White took on two additional manufacturing enterprises. In Cohoes he was one of the incorporating stockholders of the Harmony Manufacturing Company (a cotton factory) which became the famous Harmony Mill. It was in 1836 that Hugh White purchased the first property in the town of Hurley (now the hamlet of Whiteport in Rosendale) with the intention of developing a cement manufacturing works along the Greenkill. This six-acre parcel of land, purchased from Jonathan Krom, was near the Hoffman cement quarries. In short order Hugh White rapidly expanded his holdings, either by purchase or lease of adjacent property. White acquired land for mill sites from some of the early settlers of this part of Rosendale. Jacob and Margaret Peters, Jonathan Krom, Rachel van Sickle and Charles Dubois all sold land to White. Garrett Dewitt, Cornelius Lefever, Jonathan and Charles Krom, and Solomon Relyea all leased property to White. [See the Spring 2000 issue of Natural News for a story about DeWitt’s mill on the Greenkill.] His rapid expansion brought him into conflict with the Hoffmans who were also engaged in cement manufacturing near the Greenkill. In the Spring of 1837 the Hoffmans obtained an injunction ordering White to desist and refrain from breaking any stone or rock, or burning any stone or rock, or removing any stone or rock or cement from a disputed parcel of land.

White resolved that problem and continued to expand the works. Construction of the Croton Dam and Aqueduct to supply New York City’s growing need for clean water was begun in 1837. Hugh White obtained the contract to furnish the cement necessary for this large project. The Croton Dam and Aqueduct project included the building of a bridge to cross the Harlem River. This bridge, called High Bridge, was completed in 1848.

The limestone was quarried, burned in kilns and ground into cement in Whiteport and then carted in wagons to the Rondout at Eddyville for shipment to projects up and down the eastern seaboard.

P. M. Warman, superintendent of the Whiteport works, kept in touch with Hugh White via the mails. Whiteport was at that time known as Greenkill (or Greenkills). The cement business was a very competitive one. In a letter written in August, 1842, superintendent Warman notes that Hoffman, Lefever, Bruce and Palmer are all selling cement in Boston. Hoffman, Lefever, and Bruce are known cement manufacturers in the Rosendale area. Lewis C. Beck in his report in Mineralogy of New York reported, “White’s quarries and kilns are the most numerous, and turn off about six hundred barrels of cement per diem. Mr. White contracts with the quarrymen to quarry and burn the stone for twenty-five cents per barrel, while he furnishes the fuel, (dust anthracite from screened coal delivered to the kilns), removes the cement to the mills, grinds and barrels it.”

The 1840s were busy ones for Hugh White. He was elected to Congress in 1845, representing the Saratoga area. He was re-elected twice, serving until 1851. When White was first elected he was identified with the Whig party, but he became a Republican when that party was formed.

Even after his election to Congress, White would continue to operate the cement works on the Greenkill. In this endeavor he had the help of his brother-in-law, Lewis W. Mansfield, who supervised cement shipments from Eddyville and acted as White’s agent. An illustration of Eddyville, as it appeared in 1853, appears below. A brief note accompanies the drawing describing Eddyville (misspelled “Edieville”) as “a pleasant little village situated on the Rondout Creek, a small but pretty river of New York State, which enters the Hudson near Rondout village. The appearance of the town is of a charming character, and the surrounding scenery is quite picturesque.”

At the end of the 1848 season, Hugh White sold all his interests in the Whiteport cement works to the Newark and Rosendale Lime and Cement Company using Lewis Mansfield as his agent in these transactions. During the years that Hugh White operated the cement works on the Greenkill, the cement was known as White’s Cement. The barrels would be marked H. WHITE. The Newark and Rosendale Lime and Cement Company would operate and expand White’s cement works, at what had by this time become known as Whiteport, until it in turn, in 1902, sold its holdings to Samuel Decker Coykendall’s newly formed Rosendale Consolidated Cement Company.

After White sold his interests in the cement works in 1848 he was re-elected to a third term in Congress. He had hoped that, upon the expiration of that term, he would be appointed Minister to Spain by President Zachary Taylor, but Taylor’s early death, and the accession of Vice-President Millard Fillmore to the Presidency, ended that diplomatic career before it began.

White and Mansfield would leave their cement business interests in Whiteport behind but would continue to be active in the business and social life of Cohoes. In 1859 both White and Mansfield ran weekly advertisements in the Cohoes Cataract, White as a trustee of the Cohoes Savings Institution and Mansfield as the manufacturer of knit shirts, drawers and hose. Mansfield became active in church affairs and was in charge of the St. John’s Church Bible Class as well as giving lectures at the local YMCA. The Cohoes Cataract announced that he would be giving a lecture at the YMCA, January 17th, 1859, on the subject: Human Life and those who don’t like it.

Hugh White, at his death in 1870, was President of the Saratoga County National Bank, Waterford, NY and a Trustee of the Waterford Presbyterian Church.

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