SELKIRK \u2014 James Selkirk was an unlikely hero of America\u2019s Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n
The Scottish immigrant, who arrived in the colonies with next to nothing, chose to serve more than seven years in George Washington\u2019s Continental Army. His personal writings helped historians understand the struggle of a common soldier.<\/p>\n
He later settled on land in what is now the Albany County hamlet of Selkirk in the town of Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Selkirk family name is synonymous with the town of Bethlehem,\u201d said William Ketzer, the town\u2019s historian. \u201cThere\u2019s a deep, deep legacy there. There\u2019s a deep affinity for the land.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the municipality isn\u2019t named for James Selkirk. That honor goes to Francis Selkirk, a farmer \u2014 and great-grandfather to 92-year-old Ron Selkirk.<\/p>\n
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Ron Selkirk, 92, stands in front of his home on a generations-old property. He and his wife, Judy, raised their four children in Coeymans before returning to the former farmland.<\/p>\n
Collin Bolebruch<\/a><\/p>\n Five generations after James, Ron Selkirk now lives on the land James settled \u2014 where Ron was born, in Selkirk, on a fraction of the land his family originally held in a much different America.<\/p>\n \u201cThat family was profoundly affected by the sweep of history,\u201d Ketzer said.<\/p>\n James Selkirk told the story of his life and service in a memoir, unpublished for 200 years and now being released in the forthcoming book, \u201cJames Selkirk\u2019s Revolutionary War: The Memoir of a Continental Sergeant,\u201d edited by Robb Haberman.<\/p>\n Ron Selkirk recounted his family\u2019s tales to Ketzer in February 2025 for the Bethlehem Oral History Project, coloring between the black lines Ketzer drew via documents and photos on file. Ron spoke for about an hour from the home he shares with his wife Judy.<\/p>\n The house was built in 1988 after the last of their four children left the nest. A modern barn \u2014 more like a garage \u2014 sits across the driveway. The couple\u2019s bedroom faces east so the sunrise wakes them. A sunroom was added a few years later.<\/p>\n Ron and Judy Selkirk live in their 38-year-old Maple Avenue home in Selkirk, pictured Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. Their property now is a fraction of the 600 acres the family used to own when the Selkirks were farmers.<\/p>\n Collin Bolebruch<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t have to buy land to build a house,\u201d Ron said. \u201cMy wife\u2019s here. So\u2019s the farm.\u201d<\/p>\n A generations-old grandfather clock booms at the top of the hour. Family portraits are hung nearly on top of one another \u2014 from cellphone era all the way back to dry plates. Relics from Ron\u2019s days as a farmer are stored in the basement.<\/p>\n In the back of the house in a crowded guest bedroom is the retiree\u2019s only physical connection to James Selkirk and the 18th century: a copy of his third-great-grandfather\u2019s honorable discharge, signed by his commander-in-chief, George Washington.<\/p>\n During Ron Selkirk\u2019s interview for the project, he rattled off his ancestor\u2019s story with great accuracy, even though he said he \u201chardly ever\u201d heard about the man in his youth.<\/p>\n \u201cI wondered about it,\u201d Selkirk said. \u201cSelkirk from Selkirk? That can\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n This panoramic view of Selkirk\u2019s Poultry Farm on River Road in Selkirk was taken by Ron Selkirk in 1946 when he was 13.<\/p>\n Bethlehem Oral History Project<\/p>\n A teenaged James Selkirk landed in what is now Saratoga County\u2019s Galway with the Henry family, who settled the area with other Scots in 1775 at the brink of the Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n \u201cHe lacks a support system. He doesn\u2019t have family connections. He doesn\u2019t have landed property. He doesn\u2019t have great wealth,\u201d Haberman said, painting a picture of the young James Selkirk. \u201cYoung men who lacked these economic opportunities and did not have prominent social status, they tended to join the Continental Army rather than the local militia.\u201d<\/p>\n James Selkirk, who was sympathetic to the patriot effort, Haberman claims, served a longer, costlier term in the Second New York Regiment of Washington\u2019s army.<\/p>\n During his time in the army, James kept a diary, long rumored in the family and recently rediscovered by former town historian Susan Leath. Soon to be published by Haberman, James wrote of a brutal experience.<\/p>\n Three generations of the family pose for a photo at Selkirk\u2019s Poultry Farm in the late 1940s.<\/p>\n Bethlehem Oral History Project<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important that with this personal account of James Selkirk that we hear the actual words and learn the specific firsthand experiences,\u201d Haberman said. \u201cWe gain a better understanding of the suffering and sacrifices made.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the high points: Selkirk fought in the Battle of Saratoga, the turning point of the Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n But there were of course many lows. He wasn\u2019t paid during his service. He didn\u2019t receive enough food, resorting to butcher scraps. He slept in tents and lacked proper clothing. Selkirk was injured and fell \u201cseverely sick\u201d twice, Haberman said, including a spell that nearly \u201cclaimed his life.\u201d<\/p>\n Though the patriots won the war, James Selkirk fell into a \u201cdepression\u201d following his discharge, he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile he\u2019s proud to serve in the Continental Army and the fact that they have achieved this victory over the British military, he\u2019s losing any sense of family and community that he has,\u201d Haberman said.<\/p>\n Ron\u2019s paternal great-grandparents Francis Selkirk (1841-1915) and wife Florence Anna Ten Eyck (1850-1921), with children (L-R) Claire, Charles (Ron\u2019s grandfather), Ida, and Florence Anna. Photo likely taken during very early 1900s on former family farm, now part of Selkirk railyards.<\/p>\n Bethlehem Oral History Project<\/p>\n Selkirk received land in Galway as pay and later sold the property to acquire more than 600 acres in what is now Bethlehem, where he became a farmer with his wife, Elizabeth Henry. The pair raised 10 children. He died in 1820.<\/p>\n As Ron tells it, the community of Selkirk was named in 1883, when the West Shore Railroad built a station in the hamlet. Common practice was to name a station after the town\u2019s most prolific landowner, and in Bethlehem that was Jacob Soop. But \u201cAll off for Soop!\u201d didn\u2019t work, Ron said, and so James\u2019 Selkirk\u2019s grandson, Francis, also a farmer, was chosen as namesake.<\/p>\n Francis\u2019 status would soon be lost. In 1917, the New York Central Railroad \u201ctook everything but the house,\u201d Ron said, to build the Selkirk railyard for the Castleton Cut-Off freight line. The $25 million project replaced Albany West Yard and aimed to improve freight congestion throughout the state.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the name of progress people have to make a lot of sacrifices,\u201d Ketzer said. \u201cHis family is really representative of that all the way through.\u201d<\/p>\n The project prompted Ron\u2019s grandfather, Charles Selkirk, to purchase a 100-acre property east of the railyard. There he opened a poultry farm with his son, Robert.<\/p>\n Ron Selkirk shows off a vintage egg carton from the family poultry farm.<\/p>\n Bethlehem Oral History Project<\/p>\n Ron was born in 1933, shortly after the construction of Route 9 through Selkirk. He grew up a hard worker, he said, barely graduating from high school.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a good business,\u201d he said. \u201cI liked working on the farm. \u2026 My father liked me for that.\u201d<\/p>\n As a young adult, Ron served in the Army during the Korean War. When he returned home he found the farm cut in half by the construction through their property of Interstate 87 and Exit 22.<\/p>\n The highway connects New York City to the Canadian border and has brought significant financial benefits to the state. Like James and Francis, Robert and Ron Selkirk didn\u2019t have much say in the matter.<\/p>\n \u201cGenerally, people of means can avoid Selective Service. People of means can avoid having a [highway] run through their property,\u201d Ketzer said. \u201cA lot of people also don\u2019t have it like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Aerial photograph of Selkirk\u2019s Poultry Farm, showing extent of Thruway Exit 22 footprint on land previously in agricultural production. Late 1960s.<\/p>\n Bethlehem Oral History Project<\/p>\n When Robert retired in 1965, he left Ron with the egg business, including 4,000 hens \u2014 a small operation, according to Ron. New York once had a prominent poultry industry, Ketzer said, but by the time Selkirk took over it was foundering.<\/p>\n Policies from the Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon administrations subsidized produce, including eggs, making imported produce much cheaper than what Selkirk and New York egg farms could offer.<\/p>\n \u201cIn eight months I made only a couple of nickels,\u201d Ron told the history project.<\/p>\n With no prospects in the chicken business, he sold more than half the property, bringing the once 600-acre family land total down to today\u2019s 40 or so. He gave up the centuries-old family tradition and picked up jobs in gas and heating before going into freight hauling. Ron said he doesn\u2019t know who lives in his original home today.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd yet, somehow, he\u2019s just the most mild-mannered, even-tempered fellow you\u2019d ever want to meet,\u201d Ketzer said. \u201cSomehow they\u2019re not bitter.\u201d<\/p>\n Ron and Judy Selkirk live in their Maple Avenue home they designed in Selkirk, pictured Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. The property was built to its current state in 1988 when the family returned from a 20-year stay in Coeymans.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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