has delighted to honour passed their schooldays at the old Poughkeepsie Collegiate School, that received its charter in 1836. It afterwards Digitized by Microsoft® 422 The Hudson River became the Riverview Academy, the change of name corresponding with the removal from College Hill, the old site, to Riverview. The Eastman College, devoted to the work of preparing young men for business, has also been long established and is widely known; but to a great many thousands of educated women all over the world Poughkeepsie means " Vassar." When Matthew Vassar conceived the idea of doing something of public value with his wealth, he hit at first upon the plan of erecting a monument. It should be a thing to look and wonder at, something to com- memorate the most important event in the history of the river, namely, its discovery. He would build a rrionument to Henry Hudson. Some one suggested PoUopel's Island as the proper location for such a work, and Mr. Vassar, full of the project, announced it in the local papers. To his disappointment no one so much as spoke of it, and he then resolved to give to the world a greater and worthier monument than he at first imagined. So the first college in the world to be devoted exclusively to the higher education of women was founded. It solved in the only practical way a question that had been fruitlessly discussed for years. Through all the ages there had been exception- ally favoured women who had been specially trained, in the way that men were trained, and had left such records of intellectual achievement that the world gen- erally regarded them as peculiar creatures, excessively endowed. There was always, in the minds of the ma- Digitized by Microsoft® Fishkill to Poughkeepsie 423 jority even of educated men, a doubt whether the whole fabric of social life would not go to pieces if women were granted equal intellectual advantages with men, even supposing their brains could stand the strain. To meet such objections the only effectual reply must come in the way of an object-lesson, and this lesson Vassar College has furnished. It is situated two miles east of the city, on an ele- vation of several hundred feet, though it is not seen TOMPKINS COVE from the river. To offer here a mere catalogue of its extensive buildings, or such a meagre list of its advan- tages as our space permits, would serve no purpose. Its fame has gone out through all the world, and the lessons it has taught have not all been included in its regular curriculum of studies. Matthew Vassar was born in England in 1792 and was brought to America when four years old. He was Digitized by Microsoft® 424 The Hudson River consequently sixty-nine years of age when Vassar Col- lege was incorporated in 1861. At the old Huguenot village of New Paltz, on the opposite side of the river from Poughkeepsie, is situ- ated the State Normal School, and here recently a number of young women from Cuba have been prepar- ing for educational work in their own lately liberated land. Perhaps no writer who has lived on the Hudson has linked so really a generation that has passed with the men of to-day as John Bigelow, — author, editor, man of affairs, representative of his countrymen both at home and abroad. Mr. Bigelow, born in 181 7, had taken an active part in the world's work and had made a reputation in letters before many of the men now before the public had seen the light. He was a partner of William Cullen Bryant in the ownership of the New York Evening Post in 1849, ^^"^ ^^^ i^^ man- aging editor till called by Lincoln in 1861 to represent the United States in France. He was afterwards Sec- retary of State for New York and filled other important offices. A member of the Chamber of Commerce, the biographer of Bryant and of Franklin, trustee under Samuel J. Tilden's will of several million dollars for the proposed New York Public Library, and the editor of Tilden's speeches, Mr. Bigelow's story is one of many and varied activities, and his personality has attracted the friendship of the most distinguished men of his times. He began his life at Maiden, N. Y., and Digitized by Microsoft® Fishkill to Poughkeepsie 425 finally retired to his delightful home near the shore of the Hudson. There is an Indian legend connected with the name of Poughkeepsie, which is said to be derived from the Mohegan word apo-keep-sinck — " a safe and pleas- ant harbour." Between the rocky bluffs called Slange Klippe and Call Rock, the Fall Kill flowed into a bay near which was formed the earliest nucleus of the vil- lage.