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FOUR SCORE AND TWO.

Eighty-Second Birthday of Rondout's Oldest Housekeeper.--Sketch of His Life and Work.

Eighty-two years ago this day our fellow citizen, JAMES S. MCENTEE, was born in Western, Oneida county in this state, of Irish parents, who emigrated from county Monohan, Ireland, in May, 1794, and first settled in Herkimer, removing to Western in 1797, and from Western in 1805 to Salina, a village long since absorbed in the city of Syracuse. The parents moved back to Western in 1807, remaining about a year, then back again to Salina, where both parents died in August, 1808, within eleven days of one another, leaving five sons and one daughter, of whom the subject of this sketch is the last survivor. After the death of his parents Mr. McEntee resided in Western with an uncle for five years, when the uncle died, and the boy was "bound" to Edward S. Salsbury, a farmer of means residing in the same village and known in the neighborhood as "the 'Squire." Here the [[?]] continued, doing such work as falls to boys on a farm, and attending the district school during the Winter, until 1819, when he obtained a situation as axeman with a party of engineers laying out the line of the Erie canal. With that party he remained until November of the same year, when Judge Bates organized a party to explore the country from Syracuse to Oswego for a line for the Oswego canal, and with which he engaged as chainman, but after three days service was made to rodman, John B. Jervis, the celebrated engineer of the Delaware & Hudson Canal, the Albany & Schenectady railroad, the Croton Aqueduct and High Bridge, the Hudson River railroad and various other public works, carrying the compass in the same party. The Bates party completed his work in Jan., 1820, when the rodman returned to 'Squire Salsbury's home in Western and attended school for the remainder of the Winter. During the season of 1820 Mr. McEntee was with Mr. Jervis' party, engaged on the middle section of the Erie canal, from Utica to Montezuma, getting in feeders and finishing up the work generally. The Winter following was passed at "the old Squire's" attending school, when, in March, 1821, he reached the age of manhood. That season of work on the Erie canal again found him one of Mr. Jervis' party at work from Amsterdam to the Big Nose. Mr. Jervis being the resident engineer at that section. In the Autumn of 1881 Mr. McEntee went down the line between the two aqueducts below Schenectady, as assistant to Mr. Judson, remaining there until the following Spring, when he again joined Mr. Jervis. In July, 1823, he joined Canvas White's party on the Union canal in Pennsylvania, remaining about eight months, and again joining Mr. Jervis. In 1825 Mr. Jervis became chief engineer of the Delaware & Hudson Canal, and in June of that year Mr. McEntee joined him on that work, commencing the line and staking it out as it was placed under contract toward tide-water, after which he was appointed resident engineer on the first twenty miles of the canal, from tide-water. In 1827 he was made resident engineer from tide-water to Port Jervis, and also had charge of the

dock, he submitted them to Mr. Maurice Wurts, who approved of them and gave Mr. McEntee the contract to build it. The work was finished in the autumn of 1846, and the statement in the history of Ulster county (?) that "the Island dock was laid out and constructed by Chief Engineer R. F. Lord and Mr. Crane is without foundation, neither one of those gentlemen having had any connection with thtat work even in the most remote degree.
In 1847, in company with Messrs. Eggleston and McDonald of Albany,Mr. McEntee contracted with the Hudson River Railroad Company to construct the section from the upper end of Peekskill docks to below Cruger's station, and also the section from Tarrytown to Irvington. The section from Fishkill two miles north, was also contracted for, but owing to a change in the company's plans, the work was abandoned when about half completed, according to the terms of the contract. In 1848 the firm contracted to construct the dock at Cold Spring for the West point foundry, and Mr. McEntee had sole charge of that work. The Hudson River Railroad contract was finished in 1849, and in the meantime, in 1848, Mr. McEntee had leased the Mansion House to Solomon Brown, of Kingston, and moved to the place now owned by Mrs. Mosher North on Wurts street. In 1850-51 the plank roads from Roundout and Wilbur to Kingston were constructed under Mr. McEntee's superintendence, and in 1853 the authorities in charge of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point sent for Mr. McEntee to examine the plan and specifications for a dock to be constructed on the government's grounds for a steamboat wharf, and asked what the work could be done for. An estimate was made and submitted, when Mr. McEntee was told to build the dock. Col Robert E. Lee, afterward the noted Confederate general, was then superintendent of the Military Academy, the present Major General Schofield, siuce superintendent, was a lieutenant and instructor at the Academy, as was the lamented McPherson; and Gen. Delos B. Sackett, and inspector general of the army, Fitz John Porter, was instructor of artillery tactics, and a number of other officers, whose names became familiar during the rebellion, both in the Union and rebel armies, were on duty at "the Point."
For years during the Wurls administration of the affairs of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, Mr. McEntee was consulting engineer and made a survey of the canal from tide water to Hawley after "the enlargement," and which survey had much tod o with the decision of the great suit between the Pennsylvania Coal Company and the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, and in which suit Mr. McEntee was a prominent witness, the late Hon. Jacob Hardenbergh always quoting him as "the model witness." In the Spring of 1865 Mr. McEntee made a survey for a railroad from Rondout to Ellenville, up the valley of the Rondout to Ellenville, up the valley of the Rondout, and in the Autumn of the same year he commenced a survey for a railroad from tide-water at Rondout to Colliersville on the Susquehanna, including the route via the valley of the Rondout to Pine Hill; via Stony Hollow, Pine Hill and Delphi: via Phoenicia and Prattsville, which surveys were preparatory to the construction of what is now called the Ulster & Delaware Railroad.
Mr. and Mrs. McEntee are the oldest housekeepers of Rondout, having "kept house" here continously since April 1st, 1828, almost fifteen-four years, it requiring only ten days to complete that time, and with the exception of Mr. Jansen Hasbrouck, who