The old photo is a copy of a painting that was owned by Mr. & Mrs. George Hotaling of Clarksville. It was painted by H.C. Grinnel shortly after the Battle of Clarksville, which was on December 3, 1839. The painting portrays the actual meeting of the sheriff and troops encountering the mounted and masked natives of Clarksville. Both Governor Marcy and Stephen VanRensselaer are included in the painting, which embraces a panorama of the Helderberg hills just above the village. The 3 haystacks which for years were familiar landmarks on the Elsbree Jones Farm(John McKenzie’s house), are in the painting. In the entire painting the artist has captured the excitement and rugged dauntlessness of the natives, together with the aggressive spirit of the posse. To the Clarksville residents of today the background of the hills is unmistakably familiar in the painting. (June 14, 1940 article by Elizabeth Ingraham).


Photo taken 2013   Sheriff Michael Artcher and his posse of six hundred citizens left Albany on December 3, 1839, for Reidsville. The former Governor William Marcy responded to the sheriff’s summons. He marched on foot with the posse as far as Adamsville (Delmar), about 6 miles. A friend picked him up in a carriage and drove him to Clarksville, where he remained until evening and then returned to Albany with the posse. The sheriff and his posse arrived at Clarksville late afternoon. He selected seventy-five men and they started for Reidsville. At the top of the hill and around the bend, in the Albany and Delaware Turnpike Road, they met fifteen hundred mounted men posted across the turnpike and were ordered to return to Albany. The sheriff and his posse gladly marched back to Albany and arrived around 9 o’clock in the evening.