Dairying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
* * * * *
PART II.
Biographical Sketches
THE COUNTY OF ORANGE
CHAPTER I.
COUNTY, PRECINCTS AND TOWNS.
Orange was one of the earliest counties of the State, dating back to
1683. when it was organized by a colony law. It was also one of those
formed by a general act of organization in 1788, when it included the
present county of Rockland, and was described as extending from the
limits of East and West Jersey on the west side of the Hudson River
along the river to Murderer's Creek, or the bounds of Ulster County,
and westward into the woods as far as Delaware River--that is, all
that part of the state south of an easterly and westerly line from
the mouth of Murderer's Creek to the Delaware River or northerly line
of Pennsylvania. In 1797 Rockland county was set off from it, and
five towns from Ulster were added. Its boundaries were definitely
fixed by an act of the New York legislature adopted April 3rd, 1801.
The previous act of April 5th, 1797, provided that five towns, then a
part of the County of Ulster, should be annexed to the county of
Orange, and that the courts should hold their sessions alternately at
Newburgh and Goshen. Two days afterward another act was passed
defining the boundary lines of the towns composing the newly
constructed county, and naming them as follows: Blooming Grove,
Chesekook, Deer Park, Goshen, Minisink, Montgomery, New Windsor,
Newburgh, Wallkill and Warwick. There were subsequent changes, and
the following is a list of the present towns, with the years of their
erection, and the territories from which they were taken:
Blooming Grove, 1799, taken from Cornwall; Cornwall, 1788, as New
Cornwall, and changed to Cornwall in 1797; Chester, 1845, taken from
Goshen, Warwick, Monroe and Blooming Grove; Crawford, 1823, taken
from Montgomery; Deer Park, 1798, as a part of Ulster County and
taken from Mamakating; Goshen, 1788; Hamptonburgh, 1830, taken from
Wallkill, Goshen, Montgomery, Blooming Grove and New Windsor; Monroe,
1799, taken from Cornwall, original name Chesekook, changed to
Southfield in 1802, and to Monroe in 1808, and divided in 1890 into
Woodbury and Tuxedo; Montgomery, 1788; Mount Hope, 1825, taken from
Wallkill, Deer Park and Minisink, original name Calhoun; Newburgh,
1788; New Windsor, 1788; Wallkill, 1788; Minisink, 1788.
There are three cities in Orange County, Newburgh in the town of
Newburgh; Middletown, in the town of Wallkill, and Port Jervis, in
the town of Deer Park. Newburgh was chartered as a city in 1865,
Middletown in 1888, and Port Jervis in 1907.
The irregular county thus constituted is bounded on the northwest and
north by Sullivan and Ulster Counties, on the east and southeast by
the Hudson River and Rockland County, on the southwest and west by
New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Sullivan County. It has nearly half a
million square miles.
The towns along the northwestern and northern border are Deer Park,
Mount Hope, Wallkill, Crawford, Montgomery and Newburgh.
Along the Hudson are Newburgh, New Windsor, Cornwall and Highlands.
Next to Rockland County are Highlands, Woodbury and Tuxedo.
On the New Jersey line are the point of Tuxedo, Warwick, Minisink,
Greenville, and a section of Deer Park.
The most western town is Deer Park which lies along New Jersey, the
Delaware River and Pennsylvania on the southwest and Sullivan County
on the north.
In the interior are the towns of Wawayanda, Goshen, Hamptonburgh,
Blooming Grove, Chester and Monroe.
The post offices of the county as distributed in the several towns
are named as follows:
Blooming Grove: Salisbury's Mills, Washingtonville, Blooming Grove,
Oxford Depot, Craigsville.
Chester: Chester, Greycourt, Sugar Loaf.
Cornwall: Cornwall, Cornwall-on-Hudson, Cornwall Landing, Idlewild,
Mountainville, Orrs Mills, Meadowbrook, Firthcliffe.
Crawford: Bullville, Pine Bush, Thompson Ridge.
Deer Park: Cuddebackville, Godeffroy, Huguenot, Port Jervis, Rio,
Sparrowbush.
Goshen: Goshen.
Greenville: Greenville.
Hamptonburgh: Campbell Hall, Burnside.
Highlands: Highland Falls, Fort Montgomery, West Point.
Middletown: Middletown.
Minisink: Minisink, Johnson, Westtown, Unionville.
Monroe: Monroe, Turner.
Montgomery: Walden, Montgomery, Maybrook.
Mount Hope: Otisville, Guymard.
Newburgh: Newburgh, Middle Hope, Liptondale. Cedarcliff, Cronomer
Valley, Savilton, Orange Lake, Roseton.
New Windsor: Little Britain, Rocklet, Vail's Gate, Moodna.
Tuxedo: Arden, Southfields, Tuxedo Park.
Wallkill: Middletown, Circleville, Stony Ford, Howells, Crystalrun,
Fair Oaks.
Warwick: Edenville, Warwick, Florida, Pine Island, New Milford,
Wisner Lake, Bellvale, Greenwood Lake, Amity.
Wawayanda: New Hampton, Ridgebury, Slate Hill, South Centreville.
Woodbury: Woodbury Falls, Highland Mills, Central Valley.
To go back and particularize more fully: In 1686 the town of Orange
was organized, and soon afterward adjoining patents were attached to
it for jurisdiction and assessment. In 1719 the northern settlements
were separated into the precinct of Orange, with Tappan as its
center, and the precinct of Haverstraw, with "the Christian patented
lands of Haverstraw" as its center. In 1714 the precinct of Goshen
was organized, and included the entire county except the Orangetown
and Haverstraw districts. In 1764 it was divided by a straight line,
all the lands west of the line constituting the precinct of Goshen
and all the lands east, the precinct of New Cornwall. The four
precincts named were the political divisions of the county until
after the Revolution. In 1788 the towns of Warwick and Minisink were
erected from Goshen, and in 1791 the towns of Clarkstown and Ramapo
were erected from Haverstraw. In 1797 the name of the town of New
Cornwall was changed to Cornwall.
In the southern towns of the County of Ulster, afterward transferred
to Orange, changes were made in 1709. The precincts of Highlands and
Shawangunk were attached to New Paltz, and the present Orange County
towns of Montgomery, Crawford and Wallkill were then embraced within
its limits. These divisions continued until 1743, when they were
changed to three precincts--Wallkill, Shawangunk and Highlands. There
was also the precinct of Mamakating west of the precincts of Wallkill
and Shawangunk, the northern part of which was made a part of Deer
Park in 1798 by the law annexing the Ulster County towns. In 1762 the
precinct of Highlands was divided into the precincts of Newburgh and
New Windsor, and in 1772 the precinct of Newburgh was divided so as
to form another precinct on the north, named New Marlborough. The
same law divided the precinct of Wallkill so that its northern
section became the precinct of Hanover. In 1782 the name of this
precinct was changed to Montgomery by permission of the Provincial
Convention of the State. By the general act of 1788 the Ulster County
precincts which have been named were erected into the towns of
Newburgh, New Windsor, New Marlborough, Shawangunk and Montgomery.
In the winter of 1797, after much opposition to plans for changing
the boundaries of Orange and Ulster Counties, two bills were agreed
upon by a Convention of Delegates from the several towns interested,
and these were presented to the Legislature and passed. One of them
set off from Orange the present County of Rockland, and the other
annexed to Orange County the towns of New Windsor, Newburgh,
Wallkill, Montgomery and Deer Park, then the southern section of the
county of Ulster.
In 1801 a general law dividing the State into counties fixed the
then somewhat undefined boundaries of Orange, and another law adopted
the same year fixed the boundaries of its towns as they now are, with
the exception of Woodbury and Tuxedo, into which Monroe was separated
in 1890.
The first Board of Supervisors of the present county, which met in
Goshen in 1798, was composed as follows: John Vail, Goshen; Francis
Crawford, New Windsor; Reuben Tooker, Newburgh; Anselem Helme,
Cornwall; Jacob Post, Warwick; Nathan Arnont, Minisink; James Finch,
Deer Park; David Gallatin, Montgomery; Andrew McCord, Wallkill.
Since that time the three towns of Greenville, Wawayanda and
Highlands have been erected.
[Illustration: Washington's Headquarters, Newburgh]
CHAPTER II.
EARLY INDIAN CHARACTER AND CONDUCT.
Among the surprises experienced by Columbus and the explorers who
sailed up and down the coast of North America soon after his great
discovery, were the characteristics of the newly-found race of native
Indians. Their tribal differences were comparatively slight, and
although uncivilized, many of them exhibited traits which indicated a
remote ancestry above savagery, and caused speculation which has not
yet ceased.
Hendrick Hudson, from whom the magnificent Hudson River takes its
name, has given us in his journal the first information about the
tribes at its mouth and along its shores. Sailing from Amsterdam in
the ship _Half-Moon_ in 1609, he first landed near Portland, [fn] Me.,
on July 19th. Thence he sailed south to Chesapeake Bay, thence north
to Delaware Bay, and thence to Sandy Hook, anchoring, probably off
Coney Island, September 3d. Here and on the New Jersey coast Indians
came to the ship in canoes, and bartered green corn and dried currants
for knives, beads and articles of clothing. He wrote that they behaved
well, but when he sent out a boat on the 6th to explore the Narrows,
his men were attacked by twenty-six natives in two canoes, who killed
one of his crew with an arrow and wounded two others. On September
11th he sailed through the Narrows and found a good protected harbor.
Here his ship was again visited by many natives, who brought Indian
corn, tobacco and oysters for barter, and displayed copper pipes,
copper ornaments, and earthen pots for cooking.
[fn] To avoid circumlocution present names will be generally used to
indicate localities.
Hudson started on his voyage up the river September 12th, and began
his return September 22d. His ship stopped near the present city of
Hudson, but he proceeded much farther in a small boat--as far, it is
supposed, as Albany. About 25 miles below Albany an aged chief
entertained him hospitably, and the Indians offered in barter tobacco
and beaver skins. Here the Indians of the Hudson, and probably of all
North America, first tested the white man's liquor. Hudson gave them
some to see how they would act under its influence. Only one drank
enough to become intoxicated, and when he fell down in a stupor the
others were alarmed, but after he became sober the next day their
alarm ceased, and they manifested a friendly spirit. This was on the
east side of the river. Below the Highlands on the west side the
natives were of a different disposition, and shot arrows at the crew
from points of land. For this they were punished by Hudson's men, who
returned their fire and killed about a dozen of them. Hudson's
journal says that above the Highlands "they found a very loving
people and very old men, and were well used." One of his anchoring
places had been the bay at Newburgh, and here he wrote prophetically:
"This is a very pleasant place to build a town on," and the handsome
and prosperous City of Newburgh shows that he judged well. At this
point many more Indians boarded the ship, and did a brisk business in
exchanging skins for knives and ornamental trifles.
At several anchorages the Indians brought green corn to Hudson's
ship, and it was one of the agreeable surprises of the crew at their
meals. Corn was generally cultivated by the Hudson River tribes, and
grew luxuriantly. Ruttenber says it was long supposed to be native,
but investigation shows it was transplanted from a foreign shore. It
is certain that the early explorers knew nothing of it until it was
brought to them by the Indians, and that it had been cultivated by
the latter from immemorial times.
Hudson wrote that some of the Indians whom he met along the river
wore mantles of feathers and good furs, and that women came to the
ship with hemp, having red copper tobacco pipes and copper neck
ornaments. Verrazano, who sailed along the North American coast 33
years after Hudson's expedition, said the Indians were dressed out in
feathers of birds of various colors. He mentioned "two kings" who
came aboard his ship in Narragansett Bay as "more beautiful in
stature than can possibly be described," and characterized them as
types of their race. One wore a deerskin around his body artificially
wrought in damask colors. His hair was tied back in knots, and around
his neck was a chain with stones of different colors. The natives who
accompanied the chiefs were of middle stature, broad across the
breast, strong in the arms and well formed. A little later Roger
Williams was welcomed as a friend by an old chief, Canonnieus, and
his nephew, and he described the Indians who accompanied them as of
larger size than the whites, with tawny complexions, sharp faces,
black hair, and mild, pleasant expressions. The women were graceful
and beautiful, with fine countenances, and of modest appearance and
manner. They wore no clothing, except ornamental deer skins, like
those of the men, but some had rich lynx skins on their arms, and
various ornaments on their heads composed of braids of hair which
hung upon their breasts. These Indians were generous in their
disposition, "giving away whatever they had."
Later the Indians were classed from language into two general
divisions--the Algonquins and the Iroquois--terms given them by the
Jesuit missionaries. The Iroquois occupied central and western New
York, including the Mohawk River, the headwaters of the Delaware, the
Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. The Algonquins included all
the Indians of Eastern New York, Eastern Canada, New England, New
Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, and Eastern Virginia. Several tribes in
the west Hudson River counties constituted the Lenni-Lenape nation,
which held its council fires on the site of Philadelphia. Some of
their names were Waoranecks, Haverstroos, Minisinks and
Waranawonkongs. When Hudson came the Lenapes were the head of the
Algonquin nations, but wars with the Iroquois and the whites so
weakened them that they became the subjects of the Iroquois
confederacy for eighty years previous to 1755. Then they rebelled,
allied themselves with other tribes, became the head of the western
nations and successfully contested nearly all the territory west of
the Mississippi. During the period of their subservience they were
known as the Delawares. The Mohawks were the most eastern nation of
the Iroquois, and were called Maquas by the Dutch, and a branch on
the Delaware, Minquas. The Iroquois, first known as the Five Nations,
later received the Tuscaroras of North Carolina, who removed to New
York, and with the Cherokees and other southern Indians became the
sixth nation of that great Indian confederacy, to which they also
were related by language.
Both the Algonquin and Iroquois confederacies were divided into
tribes and sub-tribes of families, each with a head who was the
father or founder. These combined for mutual defense and the heads
elected one of their number chief sachem, regarding themselves as a
nation to make laws, negotiate treaties, and engage in wars, the wars
being mostly between the Algonquins and Iroquois.
The Esopus Indians occupied parts of Orange and Ulster Counties, and
their war dances were held on the Dans Kamer, a high promontory
north of Newburgh. Their rule extended to other families east and
west of the Hudson, but their territory cannot be clearly defined.
Regarding Indian character, there have been presented by our
historians some contrasting but not wholly irreconcilable views.
E. M. Ruttenber, in his valuable contribution to the History of
Ulster County, edited by Hon. A. T. Clearwater, says:
"When they were discovered the race had wrought out unaided a
development far in advance of any of the old barbaric races of
Europe. They were still in the age of stone, but entering upon the
age of iron. Their implements were mainly of stone and flint and
bone, yet they had learned the art of making copper pipes and
ornaments. This would rank their civilization about with that of the
Germans in the days of Tacitus (about the year 200 A.D.). They had,
unaided by the civilization of Europe, made great progress. They had
learned to weave cloth out of wild hemp and other grasses, and to
extract dyes from vegetable substances; how to make earthen pots and
kettles; how to make large water casks from the bark of trees, as
well as the lightest and fleetest canoes; had passed from the cave
to the dwelling house; had established the family relation and
democratic forms of government; their wives were the most faithful,
their young women the most brilliant in paint and garments and robes
of furs; they carved figures on stone, and wrote the story of their
lives in hieroglyphics, of which some of the finest specimens in
America are preserved in the senate house in Kingston; and most
remarkable of all, and that which carries back their chronology to a
period that cannot be defined, they had developed spoken languages
that were rich in grammatical forms, differing radically from any of
the ancient and modern languages of the old hemisphere, languages
which were surely ingenious, and of which it was said by the most
expert philologists of Europe that they were among 'the most
expressive languages, dead or living.' . . . They were savages or
barbarians, as you may please to call them, men who wrote their
vengeance in many scenes of blood, the recital of which around the
firesides of the pioneers became more terrifying by repetition;
nevertheless they were representatives of a race whose civilization,
though it was 1200 years behind our own, had no faults greater than
were found in the races from which we boast our lineage."
In Samuel Eager's "History of Orange County," published in 1846-7,
are found statements presenting a different conception of Indian
qualities. It says:
"The Indian character in this State is well known, and we have no
reason to believe that the character of the Indians of Orange was
materially different. If you know one you know the general character
of those who compose his wigwam, and knowing this you know that of
his tribe. They are all alike--dirty, slothful and indolent,
trustworthy and confiding in their friendships, while fierce and
revengeful under other circumstances. Their good will and enmity are
alike easily purchased. All have the war dance before starting upon
and after returning from the warpath, and bury the dead standing,
with their instruments. Their known rule of warfare is an
indiscriminate massacre of men, women and children, and they are
cruel to their captives, whom they usually slay with the tomahawk or
burn up at the stake. They believe in a future state of rewards and
punishments, and sacrifice to a Good Spirit--an unknown god. We have
the testimony of Hendrick Hudson that the Indians above the Highlands
were kind and friendly to him and his crew, and the more so the
further they proceeded up the river. This, we presume, related to
those on both sides of the river, though below the Highlands they
were of a more hostile character. We have understood, as coming from
the early settlers, who first located in Westchester and Dutchess and
afterwards removed here, as many of them did, that the impression was
very general that the Indians on that side of the river were less
hostile and more friendly to the white settlers than those on the
west; and this was given as a reason for settling there, which
accounts in some measure for the earlier settlement of that side of
the river. We infer, from the absence of written accounts of
anything very peculiar or different in the habits and customs of the
Indians of the county from others in the State, and from the poverty
of tradition in this respect that there were no such peculiar
differences, but they were similar and identical with those of the
heathen Indians at Onondaga and Buffalo before modified and changed
by white association."
These somewhat contradictory views of the Indian race seem to be
a little too sweeping on both sides, they being neither so good nor
so bad as represented. The native Indians have been both kind and
cruel to one another and the whites. Their instincts are not unlike
those of civilized peoples, but there are less control and restraint
in savagery than civilization. Their tribal differences of conduct
towards the whites depended less upon natural disposition than
leadership and provocations. Vindictiveness towards real or fancied
enemies seems to have prevailed everywhere among the North American
tribes, and this was undoubtedly increased towards the whites by the
latter's aggressions and by the former's indulgence in the
intoxicants furnished them by their white neighbors. But cruelty is
ingrained in the barbarian character almost everywhere, and often is
manifested in communities called civilized. The tortures of the
middle ages in the name of religion were as painful as those
inflicted in the eighteenth century by our Indians, and both seem
almost impossible to the philanthropist of to-day. Not until minds
have been softened by such teachings as those of the Founder of
Christianity, and extremes of bigotry have given place to tolerance
and charity, is the natural disposition of the average man to give
pain to antagonists dissipated.
There has been no more intellectual nation among the aborigines of
America than the Senecas of Western New York--the most original and
determined of the confederated Iroquois--but its warriors were cruel
like the others, and their squaws often assisted the men in torturing
their captives. When Boyd and Parker were captured in the Genesee
Valley in the Sullivan campaign of 1779, Brant, the famous half-breed
chief, assured them that they would not be injured, yet left them in
the hands of Little Beard, another chief, to do with as he would, and
the prolonged tortures to which he and his savage companions
subjected them were horrible. After they had been stripped and tied
to trees, and tomahawks were thrown so as to just graze their heads,
Parker was unintentionally hit so that his head was severed from his
body, but Boyd was made to suffer lingering miseries. His ears were
cut off, his mouth enlarged with knives and his severed nose thrust
into it, pieces of flesh were cut from his shoulders and other parts
of his body, an incision was made in his abdomen and an intestine
fastened to the tree, when he was scourged to make him move around
it, and finally as he neared death, was decapitated, and his head
raised on a pole.
[Illustration: John G. Borden]
Similar tortures were not uncommon among both the Iroquois and
Algonquins when they made captives of the whites.
Returning to the Lenni-Lenape of the Hudson River's western lands,
there is in Eager's history an account by a Delaware Indian of the
reception and welcome by the Indians of the first Europeans who came
to their country--on York Island--which is here condensed.
Some Indians out fishing at a place where the sea widens saw
something remarkably large floating on the water at a great distance,
which caused much wondering speculation among them. The sight caused
great excitement, and as it approached news was sent to scattered
chiefs. They fancied that it was a great house in which the Mannitto
(Great Spirit) was coming to visit them. Meat for sacrifices and
victuals were prepared. Conjurers were set to work, and runners were
sent out. The latter soon reported that it was a great house full of
human beings. When it came near it stopped, and a canoe came from it
containing men, one elegantly dressed in red. This man saluted them
with a friendly countenance, and, lost in admiration, the Indians
returned his salute. They saw that he glittered with gold lace and
had a white skin. He poured something from a gourd into a cup, drank
from it, filled it again, and handed it to a chief. It is passed
around, and the chiefs smell of it, but do not drink. At last a
resolute chief jumps up and harangues the others, saying that they
ought to drink, as the Mannitto had done, and he would dare to drink,
although it might kill him, as it was better that one man should be
destroyed than that a whole nation should die. Then he drank, soon
began to stagger, and finally fell to the ground. He fell asleep, and
his companions thinking that he was dead, began to bemoan his fate.
But he awoke, and declared that he had never before felt so happy as
when he drank from the white man's cup. He asked for more, which was
given him, and the whole assembly imitated him and became
intoxicated. After they became sober they were given presents of
beads, axes, hoes and stockings. Then the Dutch made them understand
that they would not stay, but would come again in a year, bring more
presents, and would then want a little land. They returned the next
season, began cultivating the grounds and kept bargaining for more
land until the Indians began to believe that they would soon want all
the country.
The scenes thus described by the Delaware Indian were probably soon
after the voyage of discovery by Hendrick Hudson.
The Esopus Indians, according to early records, represented four
sub-tribes--the Amangaricken, Kettyspowy, Mahon and Katatawis. In
1677 their chief deeded a large tract of land lying along the Hudson
in Ulster and Orange Counties and extending back to the Rochester
hills, to the English Government. The tract cannot be clearly
defined. Previous negotiations and fighting led to this transfer. In
1663 Wildwijk (Kingston), where an infant colony had been started,
was set on fire, and the colonists were attacked and murdered in
their homes with axes, tomahawks and guns. They finally rallied and
drove the Indians away, but not until twenty-five of them had been
killed and forty-five made prisoners. The New Village, as it was
called, was annihilated, and of the Old Village twelve houses were
burned. When Peter Stuyvesant heard of the calamity he sent a company
of soldiers from New Amsterdam to assist the settlers. They were
commanded by Captain Martin Kregier, arrived at Wildwijk July 4, and
a few days afterward Kregier had a conference with five Mohawk and
Mohican chiefs who came from Fort Orange. He induced them to release
some of their captives, but his negotiations with the Warranawonkongs
were less successful. They were the proprietors of lands in the
vicinity of Newburgh, and for some distance above and below the
Lenni-Lenape confederacy. They would not agree to terms of peace
unless the Dutch would pay for the land called the Groot Plat or
Great Plot and add presents within ten days. Kregier would not agree
to this, and on July 25th followed them to their castle. They
abandoned it, and fled to the Shawangunk Mountains, taking their
captives with them. They were followed, and again retreated. Kregier
burned their palisaded castle, cut down their cornfields and
destroyed about a hundred pits full of corn and beans which were a
part of the harvest of the previous year. Then Kregier returned to
Wildwijk and guarded the settlers while they harvested their grain.
He resumed offensive operations in September, sending out about fifty
men to reduce a new castle which the Indians were building "about
four hours beyond the one burned." The Indians were surprised, but
fought fiercely as they retreated, killing and wounding three of the
Dutch soldiers. Thirteen Indians were taken prisoners and
twenty-three Dutch captives released. The Indians fled to the
mountains, the uncompleted fort was destroyed, and the soldiers
carried away much spoil. Another force was sent to the same place
October 1st, when the Indians retreated southward, and the Dutch
completed the work of destruction, including crops and wigwams around
the fort. Later the Indians solicited peace and an armistice was
granted. They had suffered severely, and felt crushed, and their
allies, the Waoranecks, were also subdued, although their territory
had not been invaded. "The embers of their forest worship, which had
for ages been lighted on the Dans Kamer, were extinguished forever."
In the following May of 1664 they sought and executed a treaty with
the Dutch at Fort Amsterdam, whereby the lands claimed and conquered
by the Dutch were to remain the property of the conquerors, and the
Indians were not to approach the Dutch settlements with arms. The
ratification of the treaty was celebrated, and thus was closed the
struggle of the Indians for the possession of their lands on the
western slope of the Hudson from the Catskills to the ocean. The
Minsis remained in the western part of Orange and some adjoining
territory, and in 1692 and 1694 were strengthened by additions of
large colonies of Shawanoes. For nearly a hundred years after the
treaty there was but little trouble between the Indians and the
settlers of Orange County.
The incursions during the French and Indian and the Revolutionary
Wars properly belong to the military chapter of this history.
CHAPTER III.
FIRST SETTLEMENTS AND SETTLERS.
There is a tradition, supported by some evidence, that the first
settlement of Orange County was in the old Minisink territory along
the Delaware River. Although the supposed settlement was mostly in
Pennsylvania, the reported excavations, roads and other work of the
settlers were mostly in Orange County. The story of the tradition,
and evidence that it has a basis of fact, are given in a letter by
Samuel Preston, Esq., dated Stockport, June 6, 1828, which is
published in Samuel W. Eager's county history of 1846-7, and
reproduced in Charles E. Stickney's history of the Minisink region of
1867. Eager says the letter "will throw light upon the point of early
settlement in the Minisink country," and Stickney assumes that its
second-hand statements are substantially true. But Ruttenber and
Clark's more complete history of the county, published in 1881,
discredits them. The essential parts of Preston's letter are here
condensed.
He was deputed by John Lukens, surveyor general, to go into
Northampton County on his first surveying tour, and received from
him, by way of instruction, a narrative respecting the settlements of
Minisink on the Delaware above the Kittany and Blue Mountain. This
stated that John Lukens and Nicholas Scull--the latter a famous
surveyor, and the former his apprentice--were sent to the Minisink
region in 1730 for the government of Philadelphia; that the Minisink
flats were then all settled by Hollanders; that they found there a
grove of apple trees much larger than any near Philadelphia, and that
they came to the conclusion that the first settlement of Hollanders
in Minisink was many years older than William Penn's charter. Samuel
Depuis, who was living there, told them that there was a good road to
Esopus, near Kingston, about a hundred miles from the Mine holes,
which was called the Mine road. Preston was charged by Lukens to
learn more particulars about this Mine road, and obtained some from
Nicholas Depuis, son of Samuel, who was living in great affluence in
a spacious stone house. He had known the Mine road well, and before a
boat channel was opened to Foul Rift, used to drive on it several
times every winter with loads of wheat and cider to buy salt and
other necessaries, as did also his neighbors. He repeated stories
without dates that he had heard from older people. They said that in
some former age a company of miners came there from Holland; that
they worked two mines, and were very rich; that they built the Mine
road with great labor, and hauled their ore over it; that they bought
the improvements of the native Indians, the most of whom moved to the
Susquehanna.
[Illustration: The Colonel Ellison House, New Windsor]
In 1789 Preston began to build a house in the Minisink and obtained
more evidence from Gen. James Clinton, the father of Gov. Dewitt
Clinton, and Christopher Tappan, Recorder of Ulster County, who came
there on a surveying expedition. They both knew the Mine holes and the
Mine road, and were of the opinion that they were worked while New
York belonged to Holland, which was previous to 1664. Preston did not
learn what kind of ore the mines produced, but concluded that it was
silver. He went to the Paaquarry Mine holes, and found the mouths caved
full and overgrown with bushes, but giving evidence of a great deal
of labor done there in some former time.
Ruttenber and Clark's history, as stated, discredit the tradition
regarding the early settlement of the Minisink by Hollanders, as
accepted by Clinton, Tappan, Depuis, Preston and others. It
represents the Mine road to be simply an enlargement of an old Indian
trail, and the mines to have been of copper and located in what is
now the town of Warren, Sussex County, N. J. It says that the Dutch at
Esopus during the war of 1660-63 had little knowledge of the country,
even east of the Shawangunk, and that if the Minisink was penetrated
at a much earlier period it was by way of the Delaware River. The
historian discusses the subject further, and concludes that the first
settler of the Minisink was William Tietsort, a blacksmith from
Schenectady, who barely escaped the slaughter at that place in 1689,
and went to the Minisink country from Esopus, by invitation of
friendly Indians, and purchased lands of them in October, 1689.
"There is little doubt that he was the first settler on the western
border," says the history.
But Stickney, after recapitulating the traditions and evidence of the
early settlement of the region, says: "Here generations lived the
fleeting span of life in blissful ignorance of any outer or happier
world beside, and were alike unknown outside the boundaries of their
own domain until some wanderer chanced to come across their
settlement, and went on his way, thereafter to remember with
gratitude and envy the affluence and comfort that marked their rough
but happy homes."
If Tietsort was the first white settler of the Minisink, Arent
Schuyler was probably the second, as he settled there in 1697, having
been granted a patent of 1,000 acres of its lands by Governor
Fletcher. The governor had sent him there three years before to
ascertain whether the French in Canada had been trying to bribe the
Indians to engage in a war of extermination against the New Yorkers
from their fastnesses in the Shawangunk Mountains.
The earliest land transfers and titles were so thoroughly
investigated by Ruttenber and Clark that we cannot do better,
perhaps, than condense mostly from their history.
Warranawonkong chiefs transferred to Governor Stuyvesant the Groot
Plat or Great Plot, as it was called, in which Kingston is now
situated. These lands are said to be the first for which Europeans
received a title from the Indians, and are somewhat indefinitely
described in the treaty with them of 1665 to which reference has been
made. They were conquered by Captain Kreiger in 1663, and embraced
three townships in southwestern Ulster. Chronology next takes us to
the extreme south of Orange County. Here Balthazar De Hart and his
brother Jacob, purchased of the Indians "the Christian patent lands
of Haverstraw." They were on the south side of the Highlands and
extended from the Hudson westward to the mountains. On the
presumption that they were included in the boundaries of New Jersey,
the Harts soon transferred them to Nicholas Depues and Peter Jacobs
Marius, and purchased another tract north of them in 1671, which was
bounded by the Hudson River on the east and the mountains on
the south. This became the property of Jacobs. They also purchased a
tract north of the previous purchase, and including a part of it,
which was called Abequerenoy, and passed from them to Hendrick Ryker.
On the north a Huguenot, Louis Du Bois, with some friends who had
been driven from France by religious persecution, located first at
Esopus in 1660; and in September, 1667, after purchase from the
Indians, twelve of them became patentees of a tract of 36,000 acres
lying north of the Redonte Creek, as the Warranawonkong was then
called. The patent was obtained from Governor Andros in the names of
Louis Du Bois, Christian Doyan, Abraham Hasbroucq, Andre Le Febvre,
Jean Hasbroucq, Pierre Doyan, Louis Beviere, Anthony Crespel, Abraham
Du Bois, Hayne Frere, Isaac Du Bois and Simon Le Febvre, "their heirs
and others." Nine families immediately settled on the land and
founded New Paltz.
Between Haverstraw and New Paltz Patrick Mac Gregorie, David
Fosbruck, his brother-in-law, and twenty-five others, who were mostly
Scotch Presbyterians, occupied lands at the mouth of the Waoraneck,
and Mac Gregorie purchased for them 4,000 acres on both sides of
Murderer's Creek, on which they settled. Mac Gregorie built his cabin
on Plum Point, then called Conwanham's Hill, and the cabins of his
associates were in the vicinity, and on the south side of the creek
David Toshuck, the brother-in-law, who subscribed himself "Laird of
Minivard," established a trading post. "Within the bounds of the
present county of Orange this was the first European settlement,"
says the historian, but the precise date is not given. Stickney
thinks the year was 1684, but it was probably a little earlier, as
about that time Mac Gregorie entered into the military service of the
State without perfecting his patent, mistakenly trusting Governor
Dongan to protect his interests, who, in 1684, obtained from three
Indian owners their title to a tract extending from New Paltz along
the Hudson to Murderer's Kill, thence westward to the foot of the
high hills, and thence southwesterly along the hills and the river
Peakadasank to a pond; and the same year added by deed from several
Indians another large tract of the land called Haverstraw. These
lands included a part of those which the Indians had previously sold
to Mac Gregorie, and others which they had sold to Stephanus Van
Cortlandt. The latter had preserved his deed, and succeeded in
obtaining a patent attaching them to his manor across the river.
Mac Gregorie was killed in the Leslie revolution of 1691. Governor
Dongan sold his two purchases to John Evans in 1694, and the latter
then proceeded to dispossess Mac Gregorie's widow and her family of
their home, when he granted only leases to them and the other Scotch
settlers. After some years, however, the Mac Gregorie heirs, in
consideration of their original claim, obtained a patent of the Plum
Point farm and a mountain tract.
The fourth and largest settlement was made adjoining "the Christian
patented lands of Haverstraw" by emigrants from Holland, mostly of
the Reformed Dutch Church. They were granted a township patent in
March, 1686, under the name of the town of Orange. There were sixteen
trustees of this grant, which began at the mouth of the Tappan Creek,
extended north to Greenbush, and thence easterly and southerly back
to Tappan Creek. The center of the township was Tappan, where a
church was organized. The trustees of the grant were Claessen Cuyper,
Daniel De Clercke, Peter Harnich, Gerritt Stenmetts, John De Kries,
Sr., John De Kries, Jr., Claes Maunde, John Stratemaker, Staaes De
Groot, Aream Lammatees, Lamont Ariannius, Huybert Gerryts, Johannes
Gerryts, Ede Van Vorst, Cornelius Lammerts.
A vast tract of land immediately west of Haverstraw was conveyed to
Daniel Honan and Michael Hawdon, January 25, 1696. Adjoining this on
the south were certain tracts containing 2,000 acres which were
granted to Samuel Bayard. The Indian deed for this and other
purchases was covered by Lucas Tenhoven and embraced 100,000 acres,
for which no patent was issued.
[Illustration: V. V. Headley]
Between the Haverstraw lands and the township of Orange was the rocky
bluff known as Verdrietig Hook, including Rockland Lake, which became
the subject of controversy between the John Hutchins Company and
Jarvis Marshal & Company, both parties having obtained deeds, but
that of the latter proved to be of prior date (Sept. 27, 1694). A
few years later, in 1708, a patent was issued to Lancaster Syrus,
Robert Walters and Hendrick Ten Eyck, covering the vacant river
point described as beginning at the south bounds of Haverstraw,
extending west to Welch's island, thence southerly to the lower end
of the island, thence east to the creek running from the pond of
Verdrietig Hook, and thence north to the place of beginning, "except
the grant of Honan & Hawdon."
Ruttenber and Clark's history states that the indicated foregoing
patents covered the entire district from the New Jersey line to New
Paltz and west to the line of the Shawangunk Mountains.
Here is the proper place for some statements made by David Barclay
in his paper on Balmville read before the Newburgh Historical
Society in 1899. He said that Captain John Evans in 1694 obtained
from Colonel Fletcher, then Governor of New York, a patent for a
tract of land on the west shore of the Hudson, extending from Stony
Point to the south line of New Paltz, and westward to the Shawangunk
Mountains, including two-thirds of Orange County and parts of Ulster
and Rockland Counties, and estimated to contain 650,000 acres. The
only settlement thereon at that time was that of Major Gregorie's
heirs and followers at Murderer's Creek in the present towns of
Cornwall and New Windsor. The patent was afterward annulled by an
act of the assembly, which was confirmed, and the title reverted to
the crown. Included in these lands must have been those unjustly
transferred to Evans in 1694 by Governor Dongan "under the title of
the lordship of the manor of Fletcherdom." Ruttenber says that the
Evans patents, with others, were for a long time a disturbing
element, and were entirely undefined except in general terms.
Near the close of the 17th century there was active competition in
the extinguishment {_sic_} of the Indian titles and obtaining patents, and
several patents were granted. Three of them, to associations, were
issued at the following dates: Chesekook, December 30, 1702;
Wawayanda, March 5, 1703; Minisink, August 28, 1704.
The Chesekook patent was included in a purchase from five Indian
proprietors to Dr. John Bridges, Henry Ten Eyck, Derick Vandenburgh,
John Cholwell, Christopher Dean, Lancaster Syms and John Merritt.
The Wawayanda patent was a purchase from twelve Indians by the same
parties, and five more, namely, Daniel Honan, Philip Rokeby,
Benjamin Aske, Peter Mathews and Cornelius Christianse. The
Minisink patent was to Mathew Ling, Ebenezer Wilson, Philip French,
Derick Vandenburgh, Stephen De Lancey, Philip Rokeby, John Corbett,
Daniel Honan, Caleb Cooper, William Sharpass, Robert Milward, Thomas
Wearham, Lancaster Syms, John Pearson, Benjamin Aske, Petrus Bayard,
John Cholwell, Peter Fanconier, Henry Swift, Hendrick Ten Eyck,
Jarvis Marshall, Ann Bridges, George Clark.
This last purchase was of parts of Orange and Ulster Counties,
beginning in Ulster at Hunting House, on the northeast of Basha's
land, running thence north to the Fishkill River, thence southerly
to the south end of Great Minisink Island, thence south to the land
granted John Bridges & Company (Wawayanda), and along that patent
northward and along the patent of John Evans to the place of
beginning. There is no record that the purchasers received a deed
from the Indians, and it was reported, probably correctly, that when
Depuis obtained the Minisink lands from the Indians, he got them
drunk and never paid them the money agreed upon--treatment which
they resented for a long time afterward in hostility to the white
settlers.
The Chesekook patent was bounded north by the patent line of Evans,
west by Highland Hills, south by Honan and Hawdon's patent, and east
by "the lands of the bounds of Haverstraw and the Hudson."
The Wawayanda patent was bounded eastward by "the high hills of the
Highlands" and the Evans patent, north by the division line of the
counties of Orange and Ulster, westward by "the high hills eastward
of Minisink" and south by the division line of New York and New
Jersey.
The boundary lines of the three patents were defined in such general
terms that for a long time they caused trouble as to titles, and in
the final adjustment the territory claimed by the Wawayanda
patentees was cut off, while on the west a tract called the Minisink
angle, embracing 130,000 acres, was formed.
The English government began investigating the patents of such
immense tracts in 1698, and the next year caused the Evans patent
to be annulled, after which the territory covered by it was conveyed
in small tracts issued at different times up to 1775. These
conveyances, exclusive of those outside of the present county, were
as follows:
1. Roger and Pinhorne Mompesson, 1000 acres, March 4th, 1709.
2. Ebenezer Wilson and Benjamin Aske, 2000 acres, March 7th, 1709.
3. Rip Van Dam, Adolph Phillipse, David Provost, Jr., Lancaster
Symes and Thomas Jones, 3000 acres, March 23, 1709.
4. Gerardus Beekman, Rip Van Dam, Adolph Phillipse, Garrett Brass,
Servas Vleerborne, and Daniel Van Vore, 3000 acres, March 24th,
1709.
5. Peter Matthews, William Sharpas, and William Davis, 2000 acres,
Sept. 8th, 1709.
6. William Chambers and William Southerland, 1000 acres, Sept. 22,
1709.
7. Samuel Staats, June 5th, 1712.
8. Henry Wileman and Henry Van Bael, 3000 acres, June 30th, 1712.
9. Archibald Kennedy, 1200 acres, Aug. 11th, 1715.
10. Alexander Baird, Abner Van Vlacque, and Hermanus Johnson, 6000
acres, Feb. 28th, 1716.
11. Jeremiah Schuyler, Jacobus Van Courlandt, Frederick Phillipse,
William Sharpas, and Isaac Bobbin, 10000 acres, Jan. 22d, 1719.
12. Edward Gatehouse, 1000 acres, Jan. 22, 1719.
13. Cornelius Low, Gerard Schuyler, and John Schuyler, 3292 acres,
March 17th, 1719.
14. Thomas Brazier, 2000 acres, March 17th, 1719.
15. Phineas McIntosh, 2000 acres, April 9th, 1719.
16. John Lawrence, 2772 acres, April 9th, 1719.
17. John Haskell, 2000 acres, April 9th, 1719.
18. James Alexander, 2000 acres, April 9th, 1719.
19. Cadwallader Colden, 2000 acres, April 9th, 1719.
20. David Galatian, 1000 acres, June 4th, 1719.
21. Patrick McKnight, 2000 acres, July 7th, 1719.
22. Andrew Johnston, 2000 acres, July 7th, 1719.
23. Melchoir Gilles, 300 acres, Oct. 8th, 1719.
24. German Patent, 2190 acres, Dec. 18th, 1719.
25. John Johnston, Jr., two tracts, Feb. 3d, 1720.
26. Thomas Noxon, 2000 acres, May 25th, 1720.
27. William Huddleston, 2000 acres, June 2d, 1720.
28. Vincent Matthews, 800 acres, June 17th, 1720.
29. Richard Van Dam, 1000 acres, June 30th, 1720.
30. Francis Harrison, Oliver Schuyler, and Allen Jarratt, 5000
acres, July 7th, 1720.
31. Phillip Schuyler, Johannes Lansing, Jr., Henry Wileman, and
Jacobus Bruyn, 8000 acres, July 7th, 1720.
32. Patrick Mac Gregorie, two tracts, 660 acres, Aug. 6th, 1720.
33. Mary Ingoldsby and her daughter, Mary Pinhorne, and Mary
Pinhorne and Wm. Pinhorne, her children, two tracts, 5360 acres,
Aug. 11th, 1720.
34. Jacobus Kipp, John Cruger, Phillip Cortland, David Provost,
Oliver Schuyler, and John Schuyler, 7000 acres, Oct. 17th, 1720.
35. Lewis Morris and Vincent Pearce, two tracts, 1000 acres each,
July 21st, 1721.
36. John Haskell, 2000 acres, August 24th, 1721.
37. Patrick Hume, 2000 acres, Nov. 29th, 1721.
38. James Henderson, two tracts, one not located, 1600 acres, Feb.
12th, 1722.
39. Jacobus Bruyn and Henry Wileman, 2500 acres, April 25th, 1722.
40. James Smith, 2000 acres, Dec. 15th, 1722.
41. Charles Congreve, 800 acres. May 17th, 1722.
42. Ann Hoaglandt, 2000 acres. May 24th, 1723.
43. Francis Harrison, Mary Tathani, Thomas Brazier, James Graham,
and John Haskell, 5600 acres, July 10th, 1714.
44. William Bull and Richard Gerrard, 2600 acres, Aug. 10th, 1723.
45. William Bull and Richard Gerrard, two tracts, 1500 acres, Dec.
14th, 1724.
46. Isaac Bobbin, 600 acres, March 28th, 1726.
47. Edward Blagg and Johannes Hey, two tracts, 2000 acres each,
March 28th, 1726.
48. Nathaniel Hazard and Joseph Sackett, two tracts, 4000 acres,
Jan. 11th, 1727.
49. William Bradford, 2000 acres, Sept. 1st, 1727.
50. John Spratt and Andries Marschalk, 2000 acres, April 12th, 1728.
51. James Wallace, 2000 acres, March 2d, 1731.
52. Gabriel and William Ludlow, six tracts, 4000 acres, Oct. 18th,
1731.
53. Thomas Smith, 1000 acres. May 8th, 1732.
54. Daniel Everett and James Stringhani, 3850 acres, Jan. 17th,
1736.
55. Elizabeth Denne, 1140 acres, Dec. 12th, 1734.
56. Joseph Sackett and Joseph Sackett, Jr., two tracts, 2000 acres,
July 7th, 1736.
57. Nathaniel Hazard, Jr., 2000 acres, Aug. 12th, 1736.
58. Thomas Ellison, three tracts, 2000 acres. May 13th, 1737.
59. Joseph Sackett, five tracts, 2000 acres, Sept. 1st, 1737.
60. Ann, Sarah, Catherine, George, Elizabeth, and Mary Bradley, two
tracts, 4690 acres, Oct. 14th, 1749.
61. Cornelius Dubois, two tracts, one not located, July 2d, 1739.
62. Richard Bradley, 800 acres. May 17th, 1743.
63. Jane and Alice Colden, two tracts, 4000 acres, Oct. 30th, 1749.
64. John Moore, 280 acres, Oct. 30th, 1749.
65. Peter Van Burgh Livingston and John Provost, 3000 acres. May
26th, 1750.
66. George Harrison, three tracts, 2000 acres, July 20th, 1750.
67. Jacobus Bruyn and George Murray, 4000 acres, Sept. 26th, 1750.
68. Thomas Ellison and Lawrence Roome, six tracts, 4000 acres, Nov.
12th, 1750.
69. Alexander Phoenix and Abraham Bockel, 1000 acres, July 13th,
1751.
70. Thomas Ellison, 1080 acres, Dec. 1st, 1753.
71. John Nelson, 550 acres, Oct. 4th, 1754.
72. James Crawford, Jr., Samuel Crawford, James White, and David
Crawford, 4000 acres, May 17th, 1761.
73. Cadwallader Colden. Jr., and Daniel Colden, 720 acres, June
20th, 1761.
74. Vincent and David Matthews, 1800 acres, Nov. 26th, 1761.
75. John Nelson, 1265 acres, Oct. 4th, 1762.
76. Thomas Moore and Lewis Pintard, 2000 acres, Dec. 23rd, 1762.
77. Peter Hassenclever, March 25th, 1767.
78. William Smith and Edward Wilkin, 2000 acres, April 17th, 1768.
79. William Arisen and Archibald Breckenridge, 400 acres, 1770.
80. Daniel Horsemanden, Miles Sherbrook, Samuel Camfield, and
William Sidney, 3210 acres, 1772.
81. Thomas Moore and John Osborne, 2000 acres, March 14th, 1775.
82. Henry Townsend, 2000 acres.
[Illustration: Thomas Darling, Esq.]
[Illustration: Thomas Darling]
Only a small part of the Minisink patent was in the present county
of Orange, but the Wawayanda and Chesekook patents were wholly
within its limits, and covered its most fertile sections. The
Wawayanda patent caused much trouble, and was unoccupied by settlers
until 1712, when the surviving shareholders--Christopher Denne,
Daniel Cromeline and Benjamin Aske--determined to make settlements
thereon, and to facilitate their ends were made justices of the
peace. Parties were sent out by each of them, and these began the
settlements of Goshen, Warwick and Chester, where houses were soon
completed and occupied. The agent who preceded Denne into the
wilderness was his adopted daughter, Sarah Wells, then only 16 years
old, who was accompanied only by friendly Indian guides. She married
William Bull, the builder of Cromeline's house, and lived to the
great age of 102 years and 15 days.
Soon after the settlement thus started in 1712 John Everett and
Samuel Clowes, of Jamaica, L. I., took charge of the patent, and
proved to be enterprising and efficient agents. Recorded sales to
settlers and others prior to 1721, as well as to Everett and Clowes,
were as follows:
1. Philip Rokeby sold his undivided twelfth part to Daniel
Cromeline, John Merritt, and Elias Boudinot, June 10th, 1704.
Merritt sold his third to Cromeline in 1705. Boudinot sold his third
to George McNish, who sold to Clowes, Feb. 5th, 1714, for 150 pounds.
2. Cornelius Christianse sold to Derrick Vandenburgh, Sept. 8th,
1704, all his twelfth part. Vandenburgh sold to Elias Boudinot, and
the latter sold one-sixth of same to Everett and Clowes, July 20th,
1714, for 66L 13S. Boudinot's heirs subsequently sold five-sixths to
Everett and Clowes for 41L 13S 4D. This tract embraced New Milford,
in the present town of Warwick.
3. Hendrick Ten Eyck sold his twelfth part to Daniel Cromeline, Dec.
8th, 1704. Cromeline, who also owned two-thirds of the Rokeby share,
sold to Everett and Clowes, Jan. 1st, 1714, the sixth part of his
interest for 83L 6S, excepting two tracts, one of which contained
three thousand seven hundred and six acres. This tract was
principally in the present town of Chester, and embraced the site
on which he had made settlement and erected a stone dwelling, and to
which he had given the name of "Gray Court."
[Illustration: Governor George Clinton's Birthplace, New Windsor]
4. Ann Bridges sold to John Van Horne, merchant, of New York, July
4th, 1705, all the equal undivided twelfth part held by her husband,
Dr. John Bridges for the sum of 250 pounds. Van Horne was also the
purchaser of a part or the whole of another share and sold to Everett
and Clowes one-sixth part of one-sixth of one-thirteenth part for
58L 6S 8D. Amity was in Bridges's parcel.
5. Daniel Honan sold to John Merritt, 1705, all his twelfth part.
Margery Merritt widow, and John Merritt, son, sold to Adrian
Hoaglandt one-half and to Anthony Rutgers one-half. Rutgers sold to
Everett and Clowes one-twelfth of his half, and Anna, widow of
Hoaglandt, sold to the same parties one-twelfth, the latter, April
12, 1714, for 75 pounds.
6. Derrick Vandenburgh died holding his original share, and his wife,
Rymerich and his son Henry, his heirs, sold the same to Elias
Boudinot, Aug. 8, 1707. Boudinot sold his entire share to Clowes,
Oct. 27th, 1713, for 355 pounds. This parcel embraced what is called
in the old deeds the "Florida tract;" the name "Florida" is still
retained.
7. John Cholwell sold his twelfth part to Adrian Hoaglandt, Oct. 5th,
1706 for 350 pounds. Anna Hoaglandt, his widow, sold to Everett and
Clowes one-sixth of the share, and the remainder descended to
Christopher Banker and Elizabeth his wife, James Renant and Bertilje,
his wife, Petrus Rutgers and Helena his wife, her heirs.
8. John Merritt held his share at the time of his death, and his
heirs, Margery Meritt, widow, and John Merritt, eldest son, sold
one-half to Adrian Hoaglandt. John (then a resident of New London)
sold to John Everett, Feb. 25th, 1714, the remaining half for 120
pounds.
9. Benjamin Aske sold to Everett and Clowes, July 20th, 1714,
one-sixth of his thirteenth part for 50 pounds. He subsequently sold
a portion to Lawrence Decker, Feb 28th, 1719, another to Thomas
Blain, May 20th, 1721; and another to Thomas DeKay, Dec. 8th 1724.
In all cases the land conveyed is described as part of his farm,
called Warwick and in all cases the parties to whom the deeds were
made were described as residents of the county and upon the land
conveyed.
10. Lancaster Symes sold to Everett and Clowes, July 20th, 1714,
one-sixth of his thirteenth part for 50 pounds.
11. Peter Matthews, then living in Albany, sold all his thirteenth
part to Clowes Feb. 11th, 1713, for 200 pounds.
12. Christopher Denne sold, July 20th, 1714, to Clowes and Everett
one-sixth of his share for 50 pounds. He also sold to Robert Brown
three hundred and ten acres Sept. 3rd, 1721. Elizabeth Denne sold to
William Mapes, Joseph Allison, John Yelverton, Ebenezer Holley,
Joseph Sears, John Green, and John Worley, the Mapes deed bearing
date March 1st, 1729. The remainder of her interest in the patent
passed by her will to Sarah Jones, spinster, of New York, and
Vincent Matthews. Sarah Jones afterwards married Thomas Brown.
13. Dr. Samuel Staat's thirteenth part descended to his children,
Gerturv wife of Andries Codymus; Sarah, wife of Isaac Gouverneur;
Catalyria wife of Stevanus Van Cortlandt; Anna, wife of Philip
Schuyler; Johanna White, widow; and Tryntie Staats, who sold to
Clowes and Everett one-sixth of said part for 50 pounds, Sept. 2,
1720.
By these conveyances Everett and Clowes came into possession of lands
equaling four of the thirteen parts, and, as required by the terms of
their deeds, laid out the township of Goshen in 1714, dividing it
into farms and opening roads, and assigned 200 acres of land for the
support of a minister.
Some of the first settlers--those of 1714--were: Michael Dunning
Johannes Wesner, Solomon Carpenter, Abraham Finch, Samuel Seeley and
John Holley.
The most prolonged and bitter contest of titles was between settlers
of Orange County, mostly in the original Minisink region, and
settlers of Northern New Jersey. This was continued for sixty-seven
years with occasional border frays. The dispute had reference to the
boundary line between New York and New Jersey. King Charles II of
England in March, 1663, gave to his brother, the Duke of York,
a patent of all lands "from the west side of the Connecticut River
to the east side of Delaware Bay." The following year in June the
Duke of York granted release of all the territory now known as New
Jersey to Lord Berkley and Sir George Carteret. The northern line as
described in this grant extended from "the northward most branch" of
the Delaware River, "which is in latitude 41 degrees 40 minutes and
crosseth over thence in a straight line to the latitude 41 degrees
on Hudson's River." Sir Carteret took the east half of the province
and Lord Berkley the west half. In 1673 the Dutch reconquered New
York from the English, but on February 9, 1674, in a treaty of peace
between the two nations, it was restored to England. Sir Carteret
immediately took the precaution to have a new patent made out, which
defined the boundaries in about the same general terms as before.
Then came controversies as to which should be called "the
northward most branch" of the Delaware. The point of 41 degrees on
the Hudson was agreed to, but the New Yorkers insisted that the line
should touch the Delaware at the southern extremity of Big Minisink
island, and the Jerseymen {_sic_} that the point should be a little
south of the present Cochecton. This difference made the disputed
triangular territory several miles wide at the west end. Under the
New Jersey government the land was parceled out in tracts to various
persons, and when these came to take possession the men who had
settled upon them long before, resolutely maintained their claims. In
the border war that resulted numbers of the Minisink people were
captured and confined in New Jersey prisons. The first series of
engagements resulted from efforts to obtain possession of the lands
of a Mr. Swartwout, who was a major in the militia of Orange County.
One day the Jerseymen {_sic_} surprised him and put his family and
household goods out doors. He went to Goshen for help, and a
formidable company returning back with him, they in turn put the New
Jersey occupants and their goods out of the house, and restored it to
the major.
Then a spy was employed to watch the Jerseymen, and through the
information which he continually furnished, their future operations
were generally frustrated. About 1740 the "Jersey lines" made
another attempt upon the major and his possessions, but they were
anticipated and driven or frightened back, no one, however, being
killed. In 1753 a Jersey raid was made to get possession of the
lands of Thomas De Key, colonel of the Orange County militia and a
justice of the peace. He tried to negotiate with them, and induce
them to wait until the boundary question was determined, but they
refused, and he then barricaded himself in his house, and threatened
to shoot the first man who tried to enter, and they finally retired
vowing that they would bring a larger force. The last important raid
was in 1765, on a Sunday, when the Jerseymen came in considerable
force resolved to capture Major and Captain Westbrook. They
surrounded the church where the Westbrooks were worshiping, and when
the service was over there was a fight, amid the screams and sobs of
women, with fists and feet, in which the Jerseymen, being the more
numerous, conquered and captured the Westbrooks. They were confined
in the Jersey colony prison awhile, and then released.
In 1767 hostilities were suspended, and commissioners were appointed
to run a boundary line, and soon afterward the territory was
surveyed, and about equally divided between the claimants, and peace
thenceforth was established between the two sections.
In 1683, when the county was organized, it did not contain more than
twenty families. In 1698 a first census was ordered by Governor
Bellmont, and it showed the population to consist of 20 men, 31
women, 140 children and 19 Negro slaves. In 1860 the population had
increased to 63,812; in 1880, it was 88,220; in 1900, 103,850; and
according to the last census of 1905, our population was 108,267.
CHAPTER IV.
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.
Orange County is unsurpassed by any other in the Empire State in
variety of surface features and picturesque beauty of scenery. It has
mountain ranges and extended ridges, streams with wide and narrow
valleys, and is dotted with lakes and ponds. Along the mountain lines
are a few lofty peaks, and there are many isolated hills and rocky
precipices. Parts of its boundaries are the Hudson River on the
northeast, the Delaware and Mongaup Rivers on the west, and the
Shawangunk Kill on the northwest. Near the center the Wallkill winds
along its rich valley into Ulster County, and thence into the Hudson.
Its principal tributary on the northwest is Rutgers Creek--which also
has several tributaries--and others are Monhagen Creek, Mechanicstown
Creek and Shawangunk Kill. On the southwest it gathers in the waters
of Warwick Creek--which is swollen by smaller streams in its
course--and also Quaker, Rio Grande, and Tin Brook Creeks. The Otter
Kill flows easterly from Chester into the Hudson. The Neversink flows
from Sullivan County through the town of Deer Park, and becomes a
tributary of the Hudson. The course of the Ramapo is southerly from
Round Pond in Monroe to Rockland County, and it is fed by several
other ponds. Other streams, large and small, are numerous.
The central portion of the county consists of rolling uplands broken
by deep valleys. The most prominent of the mountain ranges are the
Highlands along its eastern border. Their loftiest peak, Butter Hill,
is 1,524 feet high, precipitous on the river side, and sloping on the
north. Another name given to it is Storm King, because clouds
occasionally gather there from different directions and concentrate
in storms of rain and lightning. Cro'-nest {_sic_} adjoins it on the
south, and is 1,418 feet above the Hudson. Bare Mountain is next,
with a height of 1,350 feet. Mount Independence, with Fort Putnam on
its summit, is the background of the West Point plateau. Other well
known hills are in this broken range, where Arnold, the traitor,
conferred with Andre, the spy, and is more intimately identified with
the military history of the country than any other mountain region.
It has been written of Butter Hill and Cro'-nest that "they have a
charm which might induce a man to live in their shadow for no other
purpose than to have them always before him, day and night, to study
their ever-changing beauty."
[Illustration: Gate of the Highlands]
The Shawangunk Mountains are a spur of the Alleghenies stretching
northeast across the western angle of the county. They are less
broken than the Highlands, and not so high as the Catskills, but of
the same general formation. The western side is precipitous, but the
eastern is sloping, and some of its lands are very fertile, producing
sweet grasses from which much of the famous Orange County butter has
been made. The peaks rise from 1,400 to 1,800 feet above tide water.
This range was the original dividing line between the Wawayanda and
Chesekook patents.
The Schunnemunk range is on the dividing line of the towns of Monroe
and Blooming Grove and a part of that of Blooming Grove and Cornwall.
An accepted descriptive phrase for the range is, "the high hills west
of the Highlands." North of it, in New Windsor and Newburgh, is
Muchattoes hill, west of it Woodcock hill, and southwest of the
latter are Round, Mosquito, Rainer's and Peddler's hills; also Torn
Rocks, which rise in two rocky peaks 200 feet high. To the southwest,
in the town of Warwick, are the Bellvale Mountains, and south of
these the Sterling Mountains. Several other mountainous elevations
in Warwick and Woodbury punctuate this part of the county and also
the border country on the west. The feet of Pochuck Mountain are in
the Drowned Lands, and northerly in Warwick are Mounts Adam and Eve,
with Adam looking down from his superior height upon the longer Eve.
Easterly, in Chester, is Sugar Loaf Mountain, and west of this is
Mount Lookout, the principal elevation of Goshen. With the further
mention of Mount William and Point Peter, looking down upon Port
Jervis, let us clip the long list of Orange County elevations.
Valleys connect mountains and hills. That of the Delaware River,
along the border of Deer Park, is narrow and irregular, being much
broken by tributaries and mountains. The most of the cultivated
lands of Deer Park are along the Neversink valley. The valley of the
Wallkill is wide, fertile and beautiful its bottom lands are among
the best in the State, and its farmers are prosperous and thrifty.
Wide flats, gradual slopes and steep declivities give variety of soil
and scenery to the Otterkill valley, and much of its scenery is
charming. The same may be said of its tributary, Cromeline Creek.
Sugar Loaf valley extends from Sugar Loaf Mountain to the village of
Warwick, taking in Wickham Pond in its course, and extending into
New Jersey. Smith's Clove, extending from Highland Mills to the
Ramapo valley, should be mentioned because it was the birthplace of
Chief Justice William Smith, his brother, John Hett Smith, and the
notorious Tories, Claudius Smith and his two sons.
One cannot travel far in Orange County in most directions without
coming upon a lake or a pond, and there are dozens of them in the
southeastern section. These feed its many streams, and when Eager
wrote his history he said there was not one town in the county that
had not water power to some extent. Beginning in the northern part of
the Highlands in Cornwall the lake-and-pond system extends through
the towns of Highland and Monroe to Greenwood Lake, thence west and
north to Big Meadow Pond in the Highlands. Greenwood Lake, in
Warwick, is the largest body of water in the county. It is about nine
miles long and one wide, is partly in New Jersey, and is a feeder for
the Morris Canal. Sutherland's Pond, half a mile long, southeast from
Cro'-nest Mountain, has an outlet which runs into Murderer's Creek.
Big Meadow Pond, in Highlands, covers about 300 acres, and its outlet
pours over the rocks of Buttermilk Falls. The waters of Round Pond
flow into Long Pond under a natural bridge about 80 feet wide, but
the stream is lost sight of until it emerges on the other side. This
is similar to the outlet of Washington Lake in New Windsor, which
emerges at Trout-hole and there becomes a fall of forty feet.
Sterling Lake, at the beginning of the Warwick series, covers about
sixty acres, and in 1751 iron works were established at its outlet.
Round Pond, in Wawayanda, is in shape what its name implies, has no
visible outlet, its water is clear, pure and deep, and it is about a
mile in circumference. Thompson's Pond, in the northwestern part of
Warwick, covers about 100 acres, feeds Quaker's Creek, and this
outlet furnishes power for mills. Orange Lake, in Newburgh, covers
about 100 acres. But all the lakes and ponds of Orange are too many
to be named. They are almost as interesting a feature of the county
as its streams.
Orange County is richer in alluviums than any other in the State,
as they cover about 40,000 acres. The "Drowned Lands," as they were
formerly called, include about forty square miles, and are partly in
New Jersey, but mostly in New York, extending in Orange from Cheeunk
Outlet in Goshen through Wawayanda and Minisink to the New Jersey
line, and covering about 17,000 acres. They contain a number of
fertile islands, and thousands of acres of the waste lands have been
recovered by means of an artificial outlet, which, at first a mere
ditch, has been deepened and widened by the flowing water until the
principal flow is through it. These recovered lands are rich and
productive. They are belted by the Wallkill and three creeks, and the
Wallkill's course through them is long because so crooked. The Gray
Court meadows extend from near Craigville in Blooming Grove into the
northern part of Chester, and embrace about 500 acres, which are
nearly all under cultivation and very productive. They are drained by
Cromeline Creek. The Black Meadows, in Chester and Warwick, are about
1,000 acres in extent, and Black Meadow Creek flows through them.
Long Swamp, in Warwick, also contains about 1,000 acres, and is
drained into New Jersey. Great Pine Swamp extends northward from
Howells on the Erie railroad seven miles in the town of Wallkill, and
embraces many oases and cultivated farms. There are several other
scattered areas of swamp lands. In the marl and peat beds in several
localities many bones of the extinct mastodon have been found,
including two complete skeletons. One of the latter was taken from a
bed near Coldenham in 1845, and weighed 1,995 pounds, and the other
from a bed in the town of Mt. Hope, and weighed 1,700 pounds.
The topography of the county has been changed somewhat by its
railroads, of which there are 250 miles, not including double
trackage or trolley roads. The following places in towns extending
across the county have each direct railroad communication north,
east, south and west: Port Jervis, Middletown, Campbell Hall, Goshen,
Chester and Newburgh. The wagon roads are numerous, generally good,
and are charming arteries for carriages and automobiles.
The geology of Orange County is as varied as its topography. Along
the eastern feet of the Shawangunk Mountains are Heidelberg
limestones, gray and Medina sandstones, shales and grits, and the
mountain rocks are mostly sandstones, shales and grits. The grits
extend along the top of the range through the county and are from 60
to 150 feet thick. Heidelberg limestone extends from the Mamakating
valley to the Delaware River. Grit and red rocks are on the west side
of Greenwood Lake, and grit of various colors extends from Round Hill
to Woodcock Mountain, and is also found in the southwest base of the
Schunnemunk range and in Pine Hill. Grawacke is the rock on the
southeast side of the Bellvale range in Warwick, and is found in the
town of Blooming Grove in the Schunnemunk range. The Hudson River
group occupies a large part of the surface of the county, and
consists of slates, shales, grits, limestones, breccias and
conglomerates. It extends from the Hudson River through Warwick to
the Jersey line, and from the Hudson at Cornwall Landing to four
miles above Newburgh. It is stratified with grawacke and grawacke
slate. It forms the surface rock of the most of Goshen and Blooming
Grove, and parts of Cornwall, New Windsor, Newburgh, Montgomery,
Hamptonburgh, Crawford, Wallkill, Mt. Hope and Minisink. Dark Utica
slate is found on the banks of the Hudson near Newburgh. Trenton
limestone appears in Hamptonburgh near Mount Lookout, and this
mountain is composed of Black River limestone, which is also found on
Big Island in the Drowned Lands and in Minisink. There is a bed of
blue limestone about a mile wide extending from the Hudson at
Hampton southeasterly through Newburgh into New Windsor. It is also
found in the towns of Cornwall, Blooming Grove, Warwick, Monroe and
Goshen. Oolitic limestone is on Big Island, near New Milford, and on
Pochunck Neck.
Slate rocks of the Taconic system are above Newburgh, and its
limestone between the Highlands and Grove Pond Mountain. Its white
limestone appears in Warwick, where it is in narrow ridges separated
by other rocks. It is also found along the shore of the Drowned Lands
at Amity, and near Fort Montgomery in the Highlands, from which it
may be traced by way of Little Pond across the Ramapo. In some
localities it is so white as to be translucent. Many different
minerals are found in it.
The primary rocks of the county consist of gneiss, hornblende,
granite, sienite, limestone, serpentine, angite and trappeau. They
extend over parts of several towns, and several mountains and hills
are composed of them. Granite is found at the foot of Butter Hill,
sienite at Butter Hill and on the east side of Bare Mountain at West
Point, gneiss along the Highlands, mica and slate north of Fort
Montgomery, angite rock between West Point and Round Pond and at
several points in Monroe, greenstone trap at Tuxedo Pond, granular
limestone at Cro'-nest and Butter Hill. Quartz rock and hornblende
are all along the Highlands and in Monroe and Warwick. Crystalline
serpentine is in the white limestone in Warwick, serpolite at Amity,
yellow garnet at Edenville, soapstone in Monroe. Large sheets of
mica are found southwest of the Forshee iron mine in Monroe, and in
this mine, which embraces an entire hill, are red garnet, brown
tremoline, carbonate of copper, serpentine, cocolite and umber. In
the O'Neil mine, half a mile northeast of the Forshee mine, are
crystallized magnetic ore, magnetic and copper pyrites, carbonate of
copper, serpentine, amianthus, asbestos, brown and rhombic spars,
angite, cocolite, feldspar and mica.
There are beds of arsenical and titanium ores in Warwick and a bed of
hemolite ore near Canterbury village. Magnetic oxide of iron abounds
in the primitive rocks of the Highlands, and at West Point is
associated with hornblende. Beds of lead have been opened at
Edenville and in the towns of Mt. Hope and Deer Park, and zinc and
copper ores have been found in small quantities. The Sterling iron
bed in Monroe, which was opened in 1781, extends over about thirty
acres, and has produced so strong an ore that it has been much used
in the manufacture of cannon. There are a number of other iron mines.
Searches for the traditional silver, gold, lead and tin mines have
been without satisfactory results.
Many evidences of glacial action in Orange County include masses of
boulders scattered in places throughout the county. These are mostly
of granite and gneiss, and there is occasionally one of grawacke. The
eastern slope of the Shawangunk Mountains gives evidence of the
passage there of an enormous glacier, which ground the rocks into the
rich soil that has been cultivated there for 200 years. Some of the
county's drift deposits are valuable for casting, brick and pottery
making, lithographic stones and glass.
The soil of the semicircular plateau from the Highlands of the Hudson
to the Dans Kamer is mostly a mixture of gravel, sand and clay, which
form a warm and fertile loam. That of the wide Wallkill valley is
alluvium mixed with clay, sand and gravel and is easily worked and
richly productive. So is the soil brought down from the hills in the
town of Deer Park. The lands on the islands of the Drowned Lands are
among the richest in the county. The alluvium of the Otterkill is a
sandy and gravelly loam. In other sections of the county there is an
alternating variety of soils, rich, medium and poor.
[Illustration: Thos. W. Bradley]
CHAPTER V.
EARLY GOVERNMENT
Until after the conquest of New York by the English in 1664 Holland
methods of government, with a local government for each town,
prevailed. The next year the English introduced courts and sheriffs.
In 1682 Thomas Dongan was appointed governor, with directions to
organize a council of not more than ten "eminent inhabitants," and
issue writs for the election by freeholders of a general assembly,
the members of which should consult with the governor and his
council as to what laws were necessary for the good government of
the province. The first meeting of the first general assembly was in
New York in 1683, and it passed fourteen acts, which were assented to
by the governor and his council. One of them established twelve
counties, as follows: New York, Kings, Queens, Suffolk, Richmond,
Westchester, Albany, Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Duke's and Cornwall.
Except Orange, to be in the care of New York, and Ulster, to be in
the care of Dutchess, the counties were to be entitled to
representation in future general assemblies. Another act established
town courts to be held for the trial of minor cases each month;
county courts and courts of sessions, to be held quarterly or
half-yearly; a general court of oyer and terminer, with original
and appellate power, to be held twice a year in each county; and a
court of chancery, or supreme court, composed of the governor and
his council, for which the governor was empowered to deputize a
chancellor to act in his place.
This was the system of administering justice eight years. Then, in
1691, Courts of Justices of Peace were organized in each town, and
Courts of Common Pleas for each county. In 1701 an act was passed
requiring justices of the peace in each county to meet once a year
at a Court of Sessions, to examine and allow necessary charges
against the county and its towns.
There were supervisors, assessors and collectors in each town from
the first, and in 1691 the freeholders of each town were empowered to
choose three surveyors to lay out and look after highways and fences,
and also to ordain laws and rules for the improvement of village,
pasturage and other lands.
Such were the laws which directed the early administration of
government in Orange County.
For many years previous to 1701 Orange County shared in serious
corruptions and frauds which were prevalent in the province. The
Assembly which convened in 1698 was so turbulent and brought so much
confusion into its councils that Governor Bellomont, who succeeded
Governor Fletcher that year, dissolved it and ordered a new election,
taking care that the untrustworthy sheriffs of his predecessor were
retired from the management. Protests were made to the King, but
without avail. The Governor had been clothed with power to correct
abuses, to veto any law, and "to adjourn, prorogue and dissolve the
Assembly." The new Assembly, which consisted of seven Englishmen and
fourteen Dutchmen, instituted some important reforms. It nullified
grants to large tracts of lands, regulated election methods, and
provided punishments for frauds. Unfortunately Governor Bellomont
died in 1701, before some of his plans could be carried into effect,
and Lord Cornbury was appointed as his successor, and acquired the
distinction of being "the worst of all the Governors under the
English crown." He was notoriously ill-mannered, dishonest,
rapacious, and openly vicious. The Assembly refused grants of money
which he asked for, and asserted the rights of the people, declaring
that they could not "be justly divested of their property without
their consent." Thus began in New York the preliminary struggle which
brought on the Revolution, ending in the establishment of the
Republic, in which the representatives of Orange earnestly assisted.
The first sessions of the Court of Common Pleas and of justices of
the peace as a Board of Supervisors were held in Orangetown in April,
1703. The court justices were William Merritt and John Merritt. The
supervisors were William and John Merritt, Cornelius Cypher, Tunis
Van Ronton, Thomas Burroughs and Michael Hawdon. The sheriff was John
Perry, the clerk was William Haddleston, and the constable was
Conradt Hanson. Orange and Ulster County people were then required to
do their surrogate business in New York. This was continued until
1751, when the Court of Common Pleas of the county was empowered to
take proof of wills and grant letters of administration. The Court of
Common Pleas was an institution of the county until 1847, when the
County Court was substituted. The Supreme Court began holding
sessions in Orange in 1704, and was succeeded by Circuit Courts
established under the Constitution of 1821, as these were by the
judicial system of 1846, consisting of a Supreme Court, Circuit
Court, and Court of Oyer and Terminer. Surrogate's Courts were not
established until 1854. In 1727 the original county was divided into
two court districts, and the sessions were held alternately in
Orangetown and Goshen, the former being the shire town. Not until
1798 was Goshen made the shire town, when the sessions alternated
between Goshen and Newburgh, an arrangement which still continues.
The first public buildings for the original county were constructed
at Orangetown in 1703. In 1740 a building of wood and stone for
court house and jail was erected in Goshen, at a cost of 100 pounds,
and was torn down about 1776. a new stone court-house having been
erected in 1773 to take its place, at a cost of 1,400 pounds. The old
Orange court-house had been replaced by a new structure in 1704, and
some years afterward was destroyed by fire. The Goshen building came
into the present county when it was reorganized under the Act of
1775. It was two stories high, with a court-room on the second floor,
and on the first a sheriff's office and dwelling, and a dungeon for
prisoners. During the Revolution Tories and war prisoners were
confined in it, one of them being John Hett Smith, arrested for
complicity in Arnold's treason, and who managed to escape. A third
story was added to this building about 1800, and on the new floor
were a main jail room, a dungeon with one grated window which could
be completely darkened, and three other rooms for the county clerk,
surrogate and jailer respectively. Above were a cupola and bell.
Court-houses were erected in Goshen and Newburgh in 1842, by
authority of an act of the Legislature, the Newburgh building at a
cost of $17,000 and the Goshen building at a cost of $13,000. The
latter structure has been completely remodeled lately, and is now a
fine, up-to-date building. The county clerk's office in Goshen--a
one-story brick building--was constructed in 1851. and the building
there for the surrogate and supervisors in 1874, at a cost of $7,400.
The county house for the poor, four miles south of Goshen, was built
in 1830 at a cost of $11,000 for the building and $1,000 for 128
acres of land. The building has since been improved and is now 50 by
100 feet and 3-1/2 stories high. In 1848 a building for the insane
was added, which is 30 by 50 feet, and in 1865 a separate building
for colored people was erected. In 1875 another building for the
chronic insane was erected, the cost of which was $20,000, and its
dimensions 80 by 40 feet and 4-1/2 stories high. The farm has been
increased to 263 acres, 200 of which are tillable, and has been
provided with the requisite outbuildings.
CHAPTER VI.
EARLY MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.
In the section of Orange County taken from Ulster the first two
companies of militia were organized before 1738. The regiment to
which they were attached consisted of nine companies, located as
follows: Kingston 3, Marbletown 1, Wallkill 1, Hurley 1, Rochester 1,
New Paltz 1, Highlands 1.
The regimental officers were: Colonel, A. Gaasbeck Chambers;
lieutenant-colonel, Wessel Ten Broeck; major, Coenradt F. Elmendorf;
quartermaster, Cornelius Elmendorf.
The following lists give the names of the officers and privates in
the territory which is now a part of Orange County:
Foot Company of the Highlands.
Officers: Captain, Thomas Ellison; ensign, John Young; sergeants,
David Davids, Moses Gariston, P. McCloghery; corporals, Jacobus
Bruyn, James Stringham; Jonah Hazard; clerk, Charles Clinton.
The names of the privates were as follows:
John Umphrey Jolin Markham
Alexander Falls John Read
David Bedford Joseph McMikhill
Wm. Coleman David Umphrey
Joseph Sweezer James Gamble
Thomas Coleman John Gamble
John McVey Cornelius McClean
John Jones John Umphrey, Jr.
Patrick Broderick James Umphrey
Joseph Shaw Peter Mulinder
Caleb Curtis Robert Burnet
William Sutton Archibald Beaty
Jeremiah Foster Daniel Coleman
Charles Beaty David Oliver
Amos Foster Arthur Beaty
Alexander Foster Matthew Davis
James Young John Nicoll, Jr.
James Nealy Alexander McKey
Robert Feef Robert Sparks
Joseph Butterton Juriah Quick
Samuel Luckey Jacob Gillis
Joseph Simson Thomas Johnston
James Clark Casparis Stymas
John Clark John Monger
Lodewick Miller James Luckey
Peter Miller Thomas Williams
George Weygant Johannes George
William Ward Jeremiah Tompkins
William Ward, Jr. Isaac Tompkins
John M. Kimberg William Watts
William Smith, Jr. Josiah Ellsworth
James Edmeston James Ellsworth
Tobias Weygant Anthony Preslaer
Jerry Manse Jonathan Tomkins
Robert Banker Moses Ellsworth
Thomas Fear John Marie
Frederick Painter Jonathan Owens
Thomas Quick Andrew McDowell
Total, 85.
[Illustration: Joseph Chadwick]
Company of the Wallkill.
Officers: Captain, John Bayard; lieutenant, William Borland; ensign,
William Kelso; sergeant, John Newkirk; corporal, John Miller.
The names of the privates were as follows:
Lendert Cole Stephanus Crist
Cornelius Cole Jacob Bush
Barnat Cole Benjamin Haines
John Robeson John McNeill, Sr.
James Gillespie Matthew Rhea
Thomas Gillespie William Crawford
John Wilkins Robert Hunter
William Wilkins James Monell
Andrew Graham George Monell
George Olloms John Monell
John North William Monell
John North, Jr. Thomas Neils
Samuel North Robert Neils
James Young John Neils
Robert Young Matthew Neils
Matthew Young Nathaniel Colter
James McNeill John Neily, Jr.
John McNeill Joseph Buttletown
Andrew Borland Thomas Coleman
John Borland Joseph Shaw
John McNeill, Jr. Patrick Broderick
James Crawford William Soutter
John Crawford John Butterfield
Alexander Milligan John McVey
Nathaniel Hill John Jones
Alexander Kidd Joseph Knapp
Archibald Hunter Isaiah Gale
James Hunter Caleb Knapp
John Wharry Robert McCord
John Mingus William Faulkner
Isreal Rodgers Samuel Smith
Jeremiah Rodgers Joseph Theal
James Rodgers James Crawford
James White Joseph Sutter
John Manley David Craig
Francis Falls Edward Andrews
Cronamus Felter Samuel Crawford
Richard Gatehouse Andrew McDowell
John Boyle Philip Millspaugh
Richard Boyle Cronamas Mingus
Robert Hughey Stuffel Mould
Robert Buchanan Johannes Crane
James Eager John Young
Thomas McCollum Hendrick Newkirk
Sojonaro Her Frederick Sinsabaugh
John Haven Cornelius Wallace
McKim Clineman Hendrick Crist
Jury Burger Tunas Crist
Hugh Flanigan Lawrence Crist
Benjamin Bennet Mathias Millspaugh and son
Patrick McPeck John Jamison
John Eldoris John McDonald
Patrick Gillespie James Davis
John Lowry
Total, 114.
The following, found in the records of the original County of Orange,
is entitled "A List of Officers Belonging to the Regiment of Foot
Militia in the County of Orange, in the Province of New York," and is
dated June 20, 1738:
Officers of Foot Militia.
Colonel, Vincent Mathews; lieutenant-colonel, Solomon Carpenter;
major, George Remsen; adjutant, Michael Jackson; quartermaster, James
Thompson.
First Company: Captain, Ram. Remsen; lieutenant, Cornelius Smith;
ensign, Ebenezer Smith. Three sergeants, three corporals, one
drummer, sixty-three private men. In all, 73.
Second Company: Captain, Samuel Odell; lieutenant, Henry Cuyper;
ensign, Benjamin Allison. Three sergeants, three corporals, one
drummer, fifty-eight private men. In all, 68.
Third Company: Captain, John Holly; lieutenant, Michael Dunning;
ensign, Sol. Carpenter, Jr. Three sergeants, three corporals,
one drummer, one hundred and eleven private men. In all, 121.
Fourth Company: Captain, Jacobus Swartwout; lieutenant, Johannes
Westbrook; ensign, Johannes Westbrook, Jr. Three sergeants,
three corporals, one drummer, fifty-five private men. In all, 65.
Fifth Company: Captain, Nathaniel Du Bois: lieutenant, David
Southerland; ensign, Isaac Hennion. Three sergeants, three corporals,
one drummer, sixty-three private men. In all, 73.
Sixth Company: Captain, Abraham Haring, Jr.; lieutenant, Garret
Beanvelt; ensign, John Haring. Three sergeants, three corporals, one
drummer, sixty-two private men. In all, 72.
Seventh Company: Captain, Jacob Vanderbilt; lieutenant, Andrew
Onderdonk; ensign, Aaron Smith. Three sergeants, three corporals, one
drummer, fifty private men. In all, 60.
Troop of Horse: Captain, Henry Youngs; lieutenant, William Mapes;
cornet, Michael Jackson. Two sergeants, two corporals, one trumpeter,
fifty-two private men. In all, 60.
Total officers and soldiers, 595; sub-officers, 56 foot.
In 1756 the Ulster regiment was divided into two regiments. Kingston
was included in the northern one, and the southern was embraced in
the precincts of Highlands, Wallkill and Shawangunk. These regiments
took part in the French and Indian War.
In September, 1773, the officers of the Southern Regiment were:
Colonel, Thomas Ellison; lieutenant-colonel, Charles Clinton; major,
Cadwallader Colden, Jr.; adjutant, Johannes Jansen.
In 1775 the New York Provincial Congress passed a law for organizing
militia which provided that counties, cities and precincts should be
divided, so that a company might be formed in each district to
consist of about 85 men, including officers, between the ages of 16
and 50 years; that these should be formed into regiments of from five
to ten companies each; that the regiments should be classed in six
brigades, under a brigadier-general and brigade major, and the
entire force should be commanded by a major-general.
The Fourth Brigade when formed consisted of five Orange County
regiments, the colonels of which were William Allison of Goshen,
Jesse Woodhull of Cornwall, John Hathorn of Warwick, A. Hawkes Hay of
Orangetown, and Abraham Lent of Haverstraw. The four Ulster County
regiments were commanded by Johannes Hardenberg of Kingston, James
Clinton of New Windsor, Lee Pawling of Marbletown, and Jonathan
Hasbrouck of Newburgh.
Colonel Allison's regimental district consisted of Goshen and the
western part of Orange County. Colonel Hathorn's of Warwick and the
southern section, Colonel Woodhulls of Cornwall (then including
Monroe and Blooming Grove), Colonel Hasbrouck's of Newburgh,
Marlborough and Shawangunk, and Colonel Clinton's of Windsor,
Montgomery, Crawford and Wallkill. The other four regiments belonged
to territory now outside of the county.
Colonel Allison's Regiment.
William Allison, colonel; Benjamin Tusten, lieutenant-colonel.
Goshen Company, 1775: George Thompson, captain; Joseph Wood and Coe
Gale, lieutenants; Daniel Everett, Jr., ensign. In 1776 Lieutenant
Coe and Ensign Everett were transferred to a minute company, and in
their places William Thompson was appointed second lieutenant and
Phineas Case, ensign.
Wawayanda Company, 1775: William Blair, captain; Thomas Wisner and
Thomas Sayne, Jr., lieutenants; Richard Johnson, ensign.
Drowned Lands Company, 1775: Samuel Jones, Jr., captain; Peter Gale
and Jacob Dunning, lieutenants; Samuel Webb, ensign.
Chester Company, 1775: John Jackson, captain; John Wood and James
Miller, lieutenants; James Parshal, ensign.
Pochuck Company, 1775: Ebenezer Owen, captain; Increase Holly and
John Bronson, lieutenants; David Rogers, ensign. In 1776: Increase
Holly, captain; David Rogers and James Wright, lieutenants; Charles
Knapp, ensign.
Wallkill Company, 1775: Gilbert Bradner, captain; Joshua Davis and
James Dolson, lieutenants; Daniel Finch, ensign.
Minisink Company, 1775: Moses Kortright, captain: Jolin Van Tile
and Johannes Decker, lieutenants; Ephraim Medaugh, ensign. In 1777
Martinus Decker became second lieutenant _vice_ Johannes Decker.
Colonel Hathorn's Regiment.
John Hathorn, colonel.
Warwick Company, 1775: Charles Beardsley, captain; Richard Welling
and Samuel Lobdell, lieutenants; John Price, ensign. In 1776 John
Minthorn became captain in place of Beardsley, deceased; Nathaniel
Ketcham and George Vance, lieutenants; John Benedict, ensign.
Pond Company, 1775: Henry Wisner, Jr., captain; Abraham Dolson, Jr.,
and Peter Bartholf, lieutenants; Matthew Dolson, ensign. In 1776:
Abraham Dolson, Jr., captain; Peter Bartholf and John Hopper,
lieutenants; Mathias Dolson, ensign. In 1777: Peter Bartholf,
captain; John De Bow and Anthony Finn, lieutenants; Joseph Jewell,
ensign.
Sterling Company, 1776: John Norman, captain; Solomon Finch and
William Fitzgerald, lieutenants; Elisha Bennett, ensign. In 1777:
Henry Townsend, captain; William Fitzgerald and Elisha Bennett,
lieutenants; Joseph Conkling, ensign.
Florida Company, 1775: Nathaniel Elmer, captain; John Popino, Jr.,
and John Sayre, lieutenants; Richard Bailey, ensign. In 1776: John
Kennedy, lieutenant, _vice_ Popino. In 1777: John Sayre, captain;
John Kennedy and Richard Bailey, lieutenants; John Wood, ensign.
Wantage Company, 1775: Daniel Rosekrans, captain; Janus Clark and
Jacob Gale, lieutenants; Samuel Cole, ensign.
Colonel Wooodhull's Regiment.
Jesse Woodhull, colonel; Elihu Marvin, lieutenant-colonel; Nathaniel
Strong and Zachariah Du Bois, majors: William Moffat, adjutant;
Nathaniel Satterly, quartermaster.
Oxford Company, 1775: Archibald Little, captain; Birdseye Youngs and
Thomas Horton, lieutenants; Nathan Marvin, ensign. In 1777: Thomas
Horton, captain; Josiah Seeley, first lieutenant; Nathan Marvin,
second lieutenant; Barnabas Horton, Jr., ensign.
Clove Company, 1775: Jonathan Tuthill, captain; John Brewster, Jr.,
and Samuel Strong, lieutenants; Francis Brewster, ensign.
Bethlehem Company, 1775: Christopher Van Duzer, captain; William Roe
and Obadiah Smith, lieutenants; Isaac Tobias, ensign. In 1776:
Gilbert Weeks, ensign.
Upper Clove Company, 1775: Garrett Miller, captain; Asa Buck and
William Horton, lieutenants; Aaron Miller, ensign.
Woodbury Clove Company, 1775: Francis Smith, captain; Thomas Smith
and Alexander Galloway, lieutenants; John McManus, ensign. In 1776:
John McManus, second lieutenant; Thomas Lammoreux, ensign.
Southwest Company, 1775: Stephen Slote, captain; George Galloway and
John Brown, lieutenants; David Rogers, ensign.
Blooming Grove Company, 1775: Silas Pierson, captain; Joshua Brown
and David Reeve, lieutenants; Phineas Heard, ensign.
Light Horse Company, 1776: Ebenezer Woodhull, captain; James Sayre,
lieutenant; William Heard, cornet; Azariah Martin, second master.
Colonel Hasbrouck's Regiment.
Jonathan Hasbrouck, colonel; Johannes Hardenburgh, Jr.,
lieutenant-colonel; Johannes Jansen, Jr., and Lewis Du Bois, majors;
Abraham Schoonmaker, adjutant; Isaac Belknap, quartermaster.
Clark's Newburgh Company, June 8, 1788: Samuel Clark, captain; James
Denton and Martin Wygant, lieutenants; Munson Ward, ensign; William
Albertson, Isaac Brown, Ebenezer Gidney and Hope Mills, sergeants;
Hugh Stevenson, Isaac Demott, John Simson and William Palmer,
corporals; Sol Buckingham, drummer.
Conklin's Newburgh Company, May 4, 1778: Jacob Conklin, captain;
Jacob Lawrence and David Guion, lieutenants; John Crowell, ensign;
Robert Erwin, Robert Ross, John Lawrence and Abraham Strickland,
sergeants; Jacob Strickland, corporal; Abraham Smith, drummer.
Smith's Newburgh Company, April 24, 1779: Arthur Smith, captain;
Isaac Fowler and John Foster, lieutenants; William Conklin, John
Kniffin, James Clark and Reuben Holmes, sergeants; William Smith,
William Michael and Samuel Griggs, corporals.
Colonel Clinton's Regiment.
James Clinton, colonel; James McClaughry, lieutenant-colonel; Jacob
Newkirk and Moses Phillips, majors; George Denniston, adjutant;
Alexander Trimble, quartermaster.
Eastern New Windsor Company, 1775: John Belknap, captain; Silas Wood
and Edward Falls, lieutenants; James Stickney, ensign.
Western New Windsor Company, 1776: James Humphrey, captain; James
Karnaghan, second lieutenant; Richard Wood, ensign.
New Windsor Village Company, 1775: John Nicoll, captain; Francis
Mandeville and Hezekiah White, lieutenants; Leonard D. Nicoll,
ensign.
First Hanover Company, 1775: Matthew Felter, captain; Henry Smith and
Johannes Newkirk, Jr., lieutenants; William Crist, ensign.
Second Hanover Company, 1775: William Jackson, captain; Arthur Parks
and James McBride, lieutenants; Andrew Neeley, ensign.
Third Hanover Company, 1775: Cadwallader C. Colden, captain; James
Milligan and John Hunter, lieutenants; Matthew Hunter, ensign.
Fourth Hanover Company, 1775: John J. Graham, captain; Samuel Barkley
and Joseph Crawford, lieutenants; James McCurdy, ensign.
Fifth Hanover Company, 1775: John Gillespie, captain; Jason Wilkins
and Robert Hunter, Jr., lieutenants; Samuel Gillespie, ensign.
First Wallkill Company, 1775: Samuel Watkins, captain; David Crawford
and Stephen Harlow, lieutenants; Henry Smith, ensign.
Second Wallkill Company, 1775: William Faulkner, Jr., captain; Edward
McNeal and John Wilkins, lieutenants; John Faulkner, ensign.
Third Wallkill Company, 1775: Isaiah Velie, captain; Israel Wickham
and John Dunning, lieutenants; Jonathan Owen, ensign.
Fourth Wallkill Company, 1775: William Denniston, captain; Benjamin
Velie and Joseph Gillet, lieutenants; David Corwin, Jr., ensign.
Of the Hanover companies the First had been known as Captain
Newkirk's Company, the Second as Captain Goldsmith's, the Third as
Captain Colden's, the Fourth as Captain Crage's, and the Fifth as
Captain Galatian's.
Of Wallkill companies the First was located on the east side of the
Wallkill, the Second on the west side, between the Wallkill and
Little Shawangunk Kill, the Third south of the Second, between the
Wallkill and the Little Shawangunk, and the fourth northwest of
Little Shawangunk Kill.
During the service of these organizations in the War of the
Revolution there were many changes in the commands. They were home
guards. In case of alarm, invasion or insurrection, the companies
were instructed to march and oppose the enemy, and immediately send
an express to the commander of the regiment or brigade, who was to
control their movements.
Under a law passed by the Continental Congress in May, 1775, three
companies of minute men were raised in the southern district of
Ulster, with the following officers:
Newburgh Minute Company: Uriah Drake, captain; Jacob Lawrence and
William Ervin, lieutenants; Thomas Dunn, ensign.
New Windsor Minute Company: Samuel Logan, captain; John Robinson,
ensign; David Mandeville and John Scofield, sergeants.
Hanover Minute Company: Peter Hill, captain; James Latta and
Nathaniel Hill, lieutenants; William Goodyear, ensign.
These companies and one organized in Marlborough formed a regiment
which was officered as follows:
Thomas Palmer, colonel; Thomas Johnston, Jr., lieutenant-colonel;
Arthur Parks, first major; Samuel Logan, second major; Isaac Belknap,
quartermaster.
Another regiment was formed from two companies organized in Goshen
and Cornwall, with the following officers:
Cornwall Minute Company: Thomas Moffat, captain; Seth Marvin and
James Little, lieutenants; Nathan Strong, ensign, who was succeeded
by William Bradley.
Goshen Minute Company: Moses Hetfield, captain; Cole Gale and Daniel
Everett, lieutenants. Later James Butler and William Barker were
chosen lieutenants and William Carpenter ensign.
The officers of the regiment were:
Isaac Nicoll, colonel; Gilbert Cooper, lieutenant-colonel; Henry V.
Verbeyck, first major; Hezekiah Howell, Jr., second major; Ebenezer
Woodhull, adjutant; Nehemiah Carpenter, quartermaster.
Both of these regiments of minute men were on duty in the Highlands
in 1775-6; but the system did not work satisfactorily, and in June,
1776, Congress repealed the law.
Three drafts were made in 1776 to reinforce the army--in June, July
and September. Under the first draft Orange County sent three
companies and Ulster four to the vicinity of New York City, as a part
of General John Morin Scott's Brigade. The second draft took
one-fourth of the militia under Colonels Nicoll and Pauling,
constituting a brigade under General George Clinton. By the third
sixty-two men were drawn from Colonel Hasbrouck's Regiment, and were
a part of 600 men which reinforced the garrisons at Forts Clinton and
Montgomery.
In July, 1776, companies of rangers were organized for the protection
of the frontiers, and three of them were raised in Ulster County,
under Captains Isaac Belknap of Newburgh, Jacob De Witt of Deer Park,
and Elias Hasbrouck of Kingston.
Of the four "Continental" Regiments organized in 1775 to serve six
months, the one commanded by Colonel James Clinton was largely
composed of Orange and Ulster County men. Orange furnished two
companies--Captain Daniel Denton's of Goshen and Captain John
Nicholson's of New Windsor. The four regiments were in the expedition
to Canada in 1775.
Under a call by Congress of January 8, 1776, for troops to reinforce
the army in Canada, New York furnished one battalion. A second call
was made on January 19, under which New York was required to furnish
four.
[Illustration: Samuel Brandt]
CHAPTER VII.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
The French and Indian War was the result of rivalry between France
and England for the possession of disputed territories in North
America, and the Indians along the Delaware and other frontiers
became allies of the French because they believed they had been
cheated by the English and Dutch colonists, and were stimulated to
hostility against them by French agents.
In 1754 England directed her colonies to oppose with arms the
encroachments of the French, although the two nations were then at
peace, and obedience to this command from the crown brought on the
cruel war of 1755. In February of that year New York voted 40,000
pounds sterling to defray war expenses, and ordered a levy of 800 men
to co-operate with troops of other colonies in the impending
struggle. The law also declared that slaves were liable to military
duty, and if over 14 years of age they were forbidden to be found
more than a mile from their master's residence without his
certificate of permission, and "if one of them were so found any
white person might kill him without being liable to prosecution."
Along the Delaware River the Indians had been complaining that the
whites appropriated lands which they had not bought, and by getting
them drunk had defrauded them of the purchase money for their lands
and their furs. These complaints led the Pennsylvania proprietaries
to call a council, with the head chiefs of the Six Nations as
arbitrators, and by bribing these chiefs with presents they obtained
from them a decision which obliged the Delawares, then wards of the
Senecas, to give up their lands and move to Wyoming. Soon whites
followed them and bought in fraudulent ways their Wyoming lands. This
angered the Senecas, and they drove away their chief who had aided
the whites, and bade the Delawares defend their homes. The eastern
and western chiefs met at Allegheny, rehearsed their grievances, and
resolved on vengeance. The bloody scenes that followed have seldom
been surpassed in barbarous cruelty and cunning, and the ravages of
the Minsis were mostly confined to the western frontiers of Orange
and Ulster Counties within the limits of the original Minisink
patent.
The settlers of the Minisink observed that the Indians there,
including squads who had been friendly, had suddenly disappeared, and
the few that remained said they had gone west to join hostile tribes.
Foreseeing trouble, some of the settlers sent their wives and
children to places of comparative safety, and a well-settled region
on the west side of the Wallkill, eight by fifteen miles in extent,
was abandoned, some of the residents moving to the east side and
others far away. Before they moved seven men and one woman had been
killed by the Indians. In 1756, pending negotiations for peace, four
men and two women were killed in the Minisink. Three of the men went
into the harvest field with their guns and laid them down, when
concealed Indians seized them, shot the men dead and scalped them.
At Fort Westfall, which the Indians tried to capture by surprise,
there was a fight in which several Indians and seven soldiers were
killed. A large party of Indians attacked the upper fort at
Neversink, which was well garrisoned, but the fort took fire from a
burning barn near it, and its inmates had to leave. Only one of them
escaped the Indian bullets and tomahawks, and among the killed was
the wife of the captain, who was absent. Only a colored woman, hidden
from view by the smoke, escaped. The captain returned a day or two
afterwards, and took an oath of vengeance by the grave of his wife.
A man named Owen was killed by strolling Indians in Asa Dolsen's
meadow in the northwestern part of present Wawayanda, and Dolsen
immediately moved to Goshen. David Cooley lived near him, and his
wife was shot dead as she was walking from her house to an outdoor
oven. In 1758, on the New Jersey frontier, one day, when Nicholas
Cole was absent from home, thirteen Indians rushed in, tomahawked
and scalped his two daughters and a son-in-law, and carried off his
wife and a young son. When Cole returned the Indians were followed
and frightened, and allowed the wife and boy to escape. In June of
the same year a sergeant and several men went from Wawarsing
block-house to Minisink, and not returning, a large party went in
search of them and found seven killed and scalped, and three wounded,
and that a woman and four children had been carried off. About this
time a house containing seventeen persons was beset by Indians and
all of them were killed. They carried off a little son of Mr.
Westfall in Minisink, and he never saw his father again, but when
the latter died, he came back with an interpreter after his
inheritance. The persuasions and pecuniary offers of his mother
could not induce him to abandon his life in the wilderness.
It was in 1758 that Governor Hardy caused a series of block-houses
to be erected along the western frontier, which were a protection
for the whites and a restraint to the Indians. In the latter part of
that year negotiations with the head chief of the Delawares,
Teedyusking, stopped hostilities for a time. The Minsis were paid for
their lands in the Minisink, and the titles of the proprietaries
were referred to the Government for adjustment. But subsequently
"the Indian allies of the French" held the frontier in terror until
after the fall of Montreal and Quebec, when all of French Canada was
transferred to British authority.
In an address before the Newburgh Historical Society in 1885, E. M.
Ruttenber said:
"In common with its associate regiments in Orange and Ulster,
Colonel Ellison's Regiment had no little service in the French and
Indian War of 1756, on the western frontier of the county, where the
Minsis were scattering firebrands and death in their rebellion
against the domination of the Six Nations, and for the recovery of
the lands in the Minisink patent, of which they had been defrauded,
and in 1757 marched to Fort Edward to aid Sir William Johnston. How
great was the service performed or by whom personally we may never
know. The depredations of the Minsis were terrible; the settlements
west of the Wallkill were perpetually harassed, and many of them
broken up; men were killed in the fields and in their houses; women
and children became the victims of the scalping knife."
Colonel Ellison wrote in 1757:
"It is but too well known by the late numerous murders committed on
our borders that the County of Ulster and the north end of Orange
have become the only frontier part of the province left unguarded and
exposed to the cruel incursions of the Indian enemy, and the
inhabitants of these parts have been obliged to perform very hard
military duty for these two years past, in ranging the woods and
guarding the frontiers, these two counties keeping out almost
constantly from fifty to one hundred men--sometimes by false
detachments of the militia, and at other times by voluntary
subscriptions--nay, often two hundred men, which has been an
insupportable burden on the people, and yet all the militia of
these parts are ordered to march to Fort Edward, while the officers
had no orders to guard the frontier."
Mention may be made here of a famous character of the Minisink.
whose unequaled career of revenge against Indians began during the
French and Indian War. His name was Thomas Quick. His father was
kind and hospitable to the Indians, and was shot dead while at work
in his field by some of them whom he had entertained. Thomas, who was
near him, and was then almost a youth, managed to escape. Over his
father's grave he took an oath to avenge his death, and afterward to
kill Indians became the passion of his life. It was said that he shot
eighty-seven of them, the last one being the chief murderer of his
father. He went by the name of "the Indian slayer." He was
marvelously alert and cunning, escaped all of the many efforts of
Indians to kill him, and finally died of old age. A monument has been
erected to his memory in Milford, Pa.
CHAPTER VIII.
WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
The most interesting period of our national history was its
beginnings in protests against oppressive demands and acts by the
mother country, followed by a revolutionary resort to arms, and in
these beginnings Orange County took a conspicuous part.
The non-importation resolutions adopted by the Continental Congress
in 1774 drew the line of issue between Great Britain and her North
American colonies, which started the war for independence. Perhaps
their most significant feature was a call for the organization of
committees of safety in every city, county, precinct and town. In the
original County of Orange the people had held a convention in Goshen,
which sent a delegate, Henry Wisner, to Congress, who voted for and
signed the non-importation resolutions; and in the towns of Newburgh,
New Windsor, Hanover, Wallkill and Goshen an opposition pamphlet
which had been scattered broadcast was publicly burned and the
desired committees of safety promptly selected. On April 29, 1774,
the committee in New York drew up a pledge and sent it to all the
counties and towns for signatures. The pledge was as follows:
"Persuaded that the salvation of the rights and liberties of America
depend, under God, on the firm union of its inhabitants in a
vigorous prosecution of the measures necessary for its safety; and
convinced of the necessity of preventing anarchy and confusion which
attend the dissolution of the powers of government, we, the freemen,
freeholders and inhabitants of ____ do, in the most solemn manner,
resolve never to become slaves; and do associate, under all the ties
of religion, honor, and love of our country, to adopt and endeavor to
carry into execution whatever measures are recommended by the
Continental Congress, or resolved upon by our Provincial Convention,
for the purpose of preserving our Constitution, and opposing the
execution of the several arbitrary acts of the British Parliament,
until a reconciliation between Great Britain and America, on
constitutional principles (which we most ardently desire) can be
obtained; and that we will in all things follow the advice of our
General Committee respecting the purposes aforesaid, the preservation
of peace and good order, and the safety of individuals and property."
[Illustration: Indian Fort Built Between 1761 and 1765, Port Jervis]