Text from William Wade Text from William Wade
Kinderhook creek enters the Hudson on the east side, nearly opposite to Four Mile Point,
and one hundred and twenty miles from New York. . . .
Stuyvesant is a pleasant town on the east side of the river. which has the same landing as
Kinderhook. a village whose name is known throughout our land as the birthplace of one of
our greatest statesmen, Martin Van Buren. The present residence of the ex-president is a
pleasant seat, about two miles south of the village. The house in which he was born is
situated about sixty rods east of the central part of the village' near the banks of the
creek. It was at that time occupied as a tavern by his father, Abraham Van Buren, and the
town meetings of ancient days were wont to assemble within its walls. On a beam in the
kitchen, rudely cut with a penknife, is a memento of the ex-president's boyhood, the
letters M. V. B.
In The Hudson River From Ocean to Source, Edgar Mayhew Bacon describes the village of Kinderhook:
"In an opposite direction (from Linlithgo) is Kinderhook (Kinder’s Hoeck), where the numerous progeny of the first settler so swarmed about the water’s edge when the trading boats went by that the skippers could think of no more appropriate name than this… The present village is not on the river shore but is reached from Stuyvesant landing."
Bacon also tells a story about Washington Irving being a guest at Lindenwald. Visiting at the same time was a school teacher names Jesse Merwin on whom it is said Irving based his character of Ichabod Crane. Merwin was reportedly flattered rather than offended at the portrait and named one of his sons after Irving.
Visit Lindenwald, the historic home of President Martin Van Buren.