Maude Adams was a world-famous stage actress born in 1872 to Mormon parents in Salt Lake City, Utah. Maude’s mother was an actress who introduced her little girl to the stage as an infant. Maude Adams was said to make her first on-stage appearance at the age of 6 months. (There are a couple of versions of how she was introduced to the stage.) Maude first appeared alone on stage at six years in La Belle Russe in 1877.
Years later, she was introduced to the Mountain Top Colony of Onteora by her friend and New York physician, Dr. William Wood. He owned a cottage in Onteora and invited Maude to visit and get some rest.
Dr. Wood was considered highly unorthodox in his practice in both New York and Onteora. He believed that adjusting the air pressure in a room (simulating an altitude of 3500 feet or more) would benefit asthma, malaria and people living with insomnia. Wood’s treatment appeared to create a state of euphoria in the patient, but that feeling was said to be short-lived. Dr. Wood had his devotees but also his skeptics. Maude Adams was a devotee who liked and respected Dr. Wood.
In 1893, 21-year-old Maude Ewing Adams Kiskadden first saw Onteora’s hills. She quickly fell in love with the mountains and the legend of Rip Van Winkle. She forever cherished Onteora’s Mountains of the Sky and its circling hills. She thought of those hills as a parade of giant elephants at twilight, protecting the high peaks.
Maude soon purchased land in Onteora for her new cottage, Caddam Hill. The name was from the Caddam Wood (in the Scottish Hills), and its connection with the performance of “The Little Minister.” After examining the mountains with her close friend, local resident and realtor, Michael Lackey, she felt she had the loveliest spot.
The famous architect George Reid designed Maude’s cottage precisely to her liking, with many windows overlooking the mountains. Her home hugged the hillside, with a view on three sides. The local contractor was Marshall Francis, bringing his 15-year-old helper, Fred Cole.
Maude died here in her beloved mountaintop, but in Tannersville, not in her home in Onteora. She had been living in Mrs. Margaret McKenna’s small home on the west end of Tannersville. This is where she died, with Mrs. McKenna at her side.
On October 14, 1953, the Tannersville community paid tribute to the life of Maude Adams. Because large crowds were expected the service was held at the Hunter Tannersville Central School. Mr. Jim Flahive, a well-liked and much-respected history teacher at HTC, said she often remarked, “Life is a School, and true success in it means we come to know inner values.”
Flahive spoke of her incredible humor and ready laugh. Many old-timers on the Mountain Top remembered Miss Adams for her gentle ways, her smile, and her happy voice.
Maude believed people were mistakenly measured by their possessions, not their qualities. She spoke of the world’s great need for honest, unselfish men and women. Maude had a charisma that drew people to her. She never forgot her friends and never lost touch with them.
Maude had artist and writer friends in Onteora but had many good friends in Tannersville.
We were lucky to have Maude Adams living near the Giant Elephants that were protecting the high peaks.
This column was submitted as the WAJ school is performing the play, Peter Pan, on the second weekend in March. Peter Pan was the first major success story for Maude Adams.
Thanks so much for reading. Enjoy the spring weather and stay safe. — Dede Terns-Thorpe/Hunter Historian