The Charles and Marion Osberg Family
1913 - 1943
Click on any photo to see enlargement
Click here
to see other Osberg photos
The Charles and Marian Osberg family began to live on the
Esopus property in 1913 and remained there until 1943, after
the Marist Brothers had purchased the area between route 9W
and the Hudson River. Thus they provide a thread of continuity
in the period when the property was owned by Captain Harry
Payne Bingham and later the Protestant Episcopal Mission
Society of New York.
Charles Osberg (1889 - 1977 was born 28
•
,
-
~
_
-~
•
• i_
September 1889 in Brooklyn NY to John
.
cJ1A
r
O
c~
.-~
·-
.
~
Osberg (1864-1922), born in Sweden and
~T6N
s s~H77
1
_
~
Hilda
???
(1867-1907) born in Norway.
1
a94H
1
~
r~w
1o
.
•
~
Charles had a younger sister Helen who
was listed as an Apprentice Dressmaker in
the 1910 census but a nurse in Washington
DC in the 1920 census. Charles is listed as
a machinist on steamboat, and his father is a machinist in a
factory. (All the Osbergs who came to the USA had machinery
backgrounds.) Both Charles and Helen were born in the USA,
but when they were very young their his mother developed an
illness and it was recommended that she return to Norway for
health reasons. They returned when Charles was 11 years old;
by that time Charles had forgotten English. Hilda died in
January 1907, and John Osberg remarried.
Charles became a seaman. His daughter Barbara remembers
his telling tales of his adventures at sea, including rounding
Cape Horn in storms and working the sugar trade between





Hawaii, Mexico and California. Later when Charles was retired,
Barbara brought him to Hawaii, where he regaled audiences
with his stories of what the Islands were like when he sailed in
the first decade of the 20th century.
He then became a sailor aboard the Aphrodite, where his uncle
Oscar and perhalps another uncle were seamen. In 1912
Colonel Payne asked him to remain ashore in Esopus to become
the engineer for the water and electric systems. His duties
included daily visits to the pump house on the river at the
northern edge of the property, maintenance of the generating
equipment in the stable/garage area (a dormitory for the
Juniors in 1942, then a gymnasium, then a chapel, and now a
conference center).
A word about terminology. Those associated with the Marist
Brothers refer to the stone buildings currently in use near the
cemetery as the "English Village". Barbara used that term for
the employee cottages across route 9W along Black Creek
Road. The Carrere & Hastings work log calls the buildings
stables and the cottages across the road employee cottages. In
what follows, we will use stables/garages for the village
complex, superintendent's house for Holy Rosary Cottage.
The village of Esopus held occasional dances. Charles was
introduced to Marion Schane (1894 - 1970), a young lady from
Esopus who was invited to the dance; the couple dated and
married in 1913. Both Marion's parents were born in Germany.
Marion's father had died before the turn of the century and her
mother remarried A. Palmateer, who operated a farm in the hills
west of Esopus, in an area called Poppletown. (This is not listed
as a town on current maps, but survives via an old house listed
in the Federal Register at Old Post Road and Swarte Kill Road,
and a winding road called Poppletown Road which runs past
Louisa Pond.) Marion loved to train horses. Most of Marion's
brothers and sisters moved away from Esopus. Her youngest
brother, William, worked as a gardener on the Esopus estate
during 1913-1914, but joined the service during World War
I.


He is listed in the 1920 census (taken 8 January 1920) as living
in West Park Village and working as a gardener on an estate. He
may be one of the ones dismissed when Captain Bingham cut
back expenses. He lived in the West Park area until his death.
After Charles and Marion were married, they lived in the
employee cottages along Black Creek Road. Later they moved
to one of the cottages in the stable/garage area. The second
cottage remained empty for many years, but when Wiltwyck
became operational the second cottage was occupied by the
head administrator, a well educated black man and his wife.
The 1930 census lists Charles, Marion and
two daughters, Hilda born 1914 and
Barbara born 1926. Two boys were born
between Hilda and Barbara, Oscar William
in 1918 and Charles in 1920, but they both
died in 1924, victime of scarlet fever. A
third daughter, Esther was born in 1933.
Hilda married John Eastman in 1936. John was a traveling
salesman from the Midwest, possibly Illinois. They moved to
Brattleboro Vermont. Hilda loved farming. When World War II
broke out the couple moved away to Clarendon, Ontario,
Canada. John continued in sales, and Hilda operated a family
farm. Hilda died in 1989.
Barbara Osberg (1926 - 2004) attended New Paltz Teachers
College but did not finish. She married Earl Matthews (1920 -
1970) of Rome NY, whom she had met when visiting Charles'
sister in Washington DC. He served in the Marines. Barbara
traveled to South Carolina and the couple married in 1945. She
worked as an accountant for 40 years for Ford Motor Company.
In 1952, she and her husband moved to his family's farm in
Rome, New York, where she lived with two of her children - a
widow after 1970; but two other children have moved away to
New Jersey and Virginia.


Esther became a teacher, graduating from New Paltz and
teaching in the Wappingers School system. She married George
Stanley Hulsair (1930 - 2009) of Ulster County, who worked for
IBM, first in Kingston and later in Poughkeepsie until his
retirement, after which the couple moved to Edgewater, Florida.
Two Hulsair sons (George and Charles) have taken over the
family farm along Myers Corners Road. One built a new house,
the other is remodeling the original farmhouse. George and
Esther have two daughters living in Wappingers Falls and one
daughter in Florida.
Captain Bingham did not live for any length of time on the
Esopus property. He had property in Palm Beach, Florida, as
well as townhouses in New York City. He tried to maintain the
property so that the employees might have a place to live.
When that became too expensive, Bingham dismissed most of
the employees. However, he made arrangement with Charles
Osberg, to live on the estate for no pay but to maintain the
water and electric systems and do general repairs. Bingham
may also have made a similar deal with the head gardener,
(name perhaps Travis or Travers or Green. There is an Elmer
Green age 42 listed as a gardener on a private estate in the
1930 census) who lived in the greenhouse area. The Osbergs
cultivated a large garden, and Barbara remembered the family
had a cow, which Marion milked.
When Captain Bingham donated the property to the Protestant
Episcopal Mission Society in 1933, Charles Osberg was asked to
stay on in the same capacity. The gardener was gone. Barbara
was close to her dad, Esther close to her mother. Barbara
remembers walking often with her Dad to the pump house. One
vivid memory is herself and a boy companion finding
themselves standing in a nest of copperheads. Her father told
them to remain still. He took a stick and dispersed the snakes
so they could proceed. She also remembers visiting the
mansion, awe-inspiring to a teen and pre-teen girl. She and her
sister dreamed of getting married in the mansion, with a major


part of the dream descending the grand staircase in their
wedding dresses. A visit to the mansion was part of Charles'
daily rounds. It's not certain whether Charles had to keep the
mansion heated, but I remember the Brothers keeping the heat
up in the mid 1960s even though the house was empty to
prevent water damage. At the latter time, the heat cost close to
$50 per diem.
Barbara remembers the great hall as a single hall. This seems
to reinforce my belief the great hall was not converted to a
chapel by the Episcopal group but by the Brothers. She also
remembers the murals on the walls of the interior courtyard,
which again reinforces my impression that the murals were
painted over in summer of 1943.
Barbara remembers that Wiltwyck organized summer camps
where children were brought from NYC for two weeks each
session. The platforms for the tents were between the Black
Creek and the railroad, probably the site proposed for the
construction of the permanent school but abandoned for lack of
funds. She and her family would attend the final campfire for
each session, with stories and cookouts.
She recalls that the property between route 9W and the Hudson
River was used as a convalescent home for sick people from the
poor districts served by the Mission Society. There were doctors
and nurses present. At first, her mother worried about the girls
moving about freely, as the caliber of patients were likely not
from high or middle society. However, once her mother made
friends with several of the nurses, things became a little more
relaxed. Her mother washed and ironed the nurses uniforms,
which was a source of supplemental income. The patients lived
in the rooms above the carriage house, but ate their meals in
the superintendent's house. Some plans exist which show two
buildings to be erected between the cottages and the
superintendent's house to be used as meeting rooms and
kitchen/dining room; but these plans also were speculative and
never materialized during the Depression era of the 1930s.


Barbara isn't clear when the greenhouse was reduced to the
state of destitution which the Brothers found in 1942 with the
dome and two of the adjoining greenhouses demolished.
Brother Feliciani brought the remaining two greenhouses back
to life, and tended them for two decades. She thinks the
destruction began after the Mission Society owned the property
and after the gardener left.
Since Marion Osberg was of German parentage and Charles of
Scandinavian parentage, it was natural to assume that they
would be Lutherans. This was true; the family traveled to the
Lutheran church in Kingston for worship. When the Mission
Society became the owners, Charles and Marion thought they
ought to join the Episcopal Church; services were held in the
Ascension Church. However, for the patients, services were held
in the open garage area of the stable/garage area. Since the
patients were housed in the same building, the site was
convenient. Marion and Charles were buried out of the Episcopal
Church in Kingston.
The Osbergs and the Brothers got along very well. Brother Mary
Anthony Scheh familiarly known as "Herbie" was the general
maintenance person and often sought Charles advice on
problems. Barbara also remembers a Brother James, probably
Brother James Elliott, who taught at Marist Prep from 1942 to
1945. The Osbergs got along so well with the Brothers that one
day Charles remarked that they ought to have become
Catholics rather than Episcopalians!
When the Brothers bought the property, the Osbergs were living
in one of the two separate houses in the stable/garage
complex. Since that was to be used for the faculty, the Osbergs
moved across route 9W to the farm superintendent's house
next to the old chicken farm. Some time in 1943 the family
moved to Kingston.
Charles Osberg took a position first with an electrical plant
during World War II and later with Island Dock Corporation in




Port Ewen. Roger Mabie, an Esopus native and unofficial
historian, remembers Charlie well. Charlie was highly regarded
by both his superiors and fellow workers at Island Dock. Marion
died in 1970 and Charles in 1977. Both are buried in Highland
Cemetery, together with the two boys who died in 1924. By that
time all their children had moved out of the Kingston area.
return to ==>>
tOP- of P-ag.e P-hoto list home P-ag.e
transcribed from the 2004 edition on 30 july 2010.
photos improved and small changes to the text