“On the morning of July 26th, 1782,” Tories and “twenty-two Indians” under the direction of Captain Adam Crysler “tomahawked and scalped” Jacob Zimmer Jr. “in the presence of his wife and mother—two who could feel most keenly his loss” before setting fire to the Foxes Creek home and barn, murdering and scalping the Zimmers’ hired man on their way out.
That’s the story Simms’ 1845 “History of Schoharie County” tells of a massacre off Route 443 in Gallupville—and, all the reason, opponents argue, some 242 years later, it’s no place for a Dollar General.
The Town of Wright Planning Board has been reviewing the proposed Dollar General near Drebitko and Cook Roads for more than a year.
Neighbors are concerned about noise, traffic, and lighting, arguing the project would destroy Gallupville’s rural character.
Now, they’ve launched a petition drive to protect the 1772 Becker Stone House, a landmark listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, hoping it will stop or at least move the project.
The Becker Stone House is adjacent to the would-be Dollar General—and the site of the 1782 massacre, which also left John Becker scalped and dead.
The Planning Board meets at 7:30pm Thursday, April 4, at the Town Hall on 105A School Street.
Neighbors are hoping their efforts to honor Gallupville’s history will draw a crowd.
As part of the required SEQRA—State Environmental Quality Review Act—preview, the Planning Board has already identified the project’s impact to historic and archaeological resources as “moderate to large.”
That, said neighbor Linda Briggs, is reason enough to stop it now.
“There is just so much history here,” she said. “History you don’t find anywhere else. That massacre on the north field…My house used to be a tollhouse. There’s a blacksmith’s across the street…”
And the Becker Stone House, overlooking the proposed Dollar General site.
After leaving the Zimmers’, Simms records, Captain Crysler and his soldiers headed to Johannes Becker’s, leaving one of his five sons, John, dead, scalped. The rest of the Beckers escaped.
Ms. Briggs said she’s not opposed to a Dollar General—and had resigned herself to seeing houses built on the site—but feels there has to be a better place for it---possibly at the corner of Routes 146 and 143, where there are already a number of vacant buildings.
“I’ve never gotten into politics before. I’m just trying to keep my town rural and honor its unique history,” she said.
Ms. Briggs and others have launched a petition drive at KeepWright Rural.com outlining their concerns; about 150 people have signed it so far, she said.
They’re also working on getting historical markers for more of Gallupville’s landmarks, and they’ve been putting up signs with a simple message: “No Dollar General.”