18 carpenters, masons, and builders working between the villages. The builders had to travel to his office in Cold Spring for their sealed submission of bids, which were opened all at once in the architect’s presence. The identities of those craftsmen Harney selected to work with him are unknown, but he did work more than once with the Cold Spring builder Sylvanus Ferris, though their documented collaborations do not involve domestic architecture. 25 As the Wades acquired their land midway through the construction season of 1867, building reasonably did not commence until early spring 1868. Loads of bricks were carted to the property from the nearest yards less than a mile north. Other materials—slate, lumber, plaster—were more strenuous to convey to the remote site, undoubtedly contributing to the cost of labor. James and Louisa Wade left Ogdensburg on September 10, 1868 and moved their family into the house that week. The business fell to the responsibility of agents, who now managed 2/3 of the sale and distribution of James’s products. Between 1868–1870, debate over his full-time residence erupted in a lawsuit against tax assessors of the city of Ogdensburg, who unjustly assessed James’s shipping vessels by Ogdensburg tax rates, rather than those of Fishkill. 26 In the first years of living at his country house, James had no longing to retire, and continued traveling to Ogdensburg in addition to maintaining his section of the Van Amburgh farm with Charles Hereford Van Amburgh. Pleasant life at the house had arrived by the early 1870s. James and Louisa’s eldest children, Ralph V., Charles H., and Harriet, were teenagers; their siblings, William and Arthur, were between the ages of 7–10. Staff residing at the house included three Irish immigrants: Eliza Conner, 25, Mary Horra, 25, and Patrick Clark, 20. An Irish-born gardener, John Roach, lived with his family directly next to the Wade household, perhaps in the cottage James had commissioned, but it is unclear whether Roach consisted of the family’s employees. James’s grounds and farm were also managed by laborers who lived elsewhere along the road. 27
