History of New Paltz, New York and its old families (from 1678 to 1820) : including the Huguenot pioneers and others who settled in New Paltz previous to the revolution, 2nd ed, Part 1

Author: Lefevre, Ralph
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Albany, N.Y. : Fort Orange Press
Number of Pages: 844


USA > New York > Ulster County > New Paltz > History of New Paltz, New York and its old families (from 1678 to 1820) : including the Huguenot pioneers and others who settled in New Paltz previous to the revolution, 2nd ed > Part 1


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Ralph Le Fevre


SECOND EDITION


HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ NEW YORK


AND


ITS OLD FAMILIES


(FROM 1678 TO 1820)


INCLUDING THE HUGUENOT PIONEERS AND OTHERS WHO SETTLED IN NEW PALTZ PREVIOUS TO THE REVOLUTION


With an Appendix bringing down the, history of certain families and some other matter to 1850


By RALPH LE FEVRE


---


President New Paltz Huguenot, Patriotic, Historical and Monumental Society; Corresponding Member Huguenot Society of America; Corresponding Member New York Genealogical and Biographical Society; Forty years Editor of New Paltz Independent


ILLUSTRATED


FORT ORANGE PRESS BRANDOW PRINTING COMPANY, ALBANY, N. Y. 1909


1


-


COPYRIGHT, 1909


BY RALPH LE FEVRE


1142981


ESTHER M. OLIVER


Wife of the author, to whom this book is dedicated in recog- nition of the active aid and encouragement, without which the work would not have been un- dertaken or carried through.


D


1


.


PREFACE


T is natural for the people of any country or community 1 to feel an interest in the history of their ancestors. Even the most savage nations have carefully cherished tra- ditions of the deeds and prowess of their forefathers.


To every man the honorable fame of his progenitors is an incentive to emulate their noble deeds.


In the early settlement of New Paltz and its history for nearly a century afterwards there is such a touch of ro- mance, such a blending of the stern realities of frontier life with the harmony of the poet's golden age, such noble examples of devotion to the cause of religious liberty, such brotherly kindness toward each other as exiles for a com- mon cause, that the example should not be lost to posterity.


Our old men are falling around us. The traditions which they cherished are perishing with them. What is to be saved from oblivion must be saved now-in this generation.


With these feelings we have undertaken the task of gath- ering up the scattered links of history and joining them in a chain that should stretch down from the days of the Patentees.


In writing the history of New Paltz it is not to be ex- pected that the record of all its early settlers can be carried back of the time when our ancestors fled from France. Louis XIV was not satisfied with driving his Protestant subjects out of the country and confiscating their lands and goods .- Their very names were suppressed from baptismal and genealogical records. Weiss' History of the French


iv


PREFACE


Protestant Refugees says: "Under certain plausible pre- texts Louis XIV compelled the consistories of the Reformed churches to surrender their title papers and their registers of baptism, marriages and burials. These important docu- ments were suppressed, and thus a great number of noble families found themselves deprived of all legal means of proving their origin."


TABLE OF CONTENTS


CHAPTER I


PAGE


Events preceding the settlement I


All probably lived at Hurley 19


CHAPTER II


More land wanted 2I


Deed of gift to Jean Cottin. 22


The French schoolmasters at New Paltz 25


Houses built by Patentees 28


Dressmaking in the old days 32


The first sales of land. 33


CHAPTER III


The French records of New Paltz church


37


CHAPTER IV


The blending of French and Dutch at New Paltz.


44


CHAPTER V


Collection of old papers


49


Patentees' trunk


53


CHAPTER VI


The spelling of various family names 55


CHAPTER VII


Moving out and moving in. 58


Dutch language superseding the French. 59


Territory formerly part of the town, but not within the Paltz Patent 60


The first public highway 62


Disputes in regard to the boundaries of the Patent. 63


CHAPTER VIII


A pure Democracy.


66


Land worked in common .. 69


The government of the Dusine 69


vi


CONTENTS


CHAPTER IX


PAGE


The Indians and hunting stories.


78


Stolen by the Indians. 82


Some hunting stories


83


Wild pigeons and larger game. 86


Desperate fight with a bear.


87


CHAPTER X


Property holders at New Paltz in early days 89


Taxpayers in 1712. 89


The building of the first stone church. 91


Frecholders in 1728.


.92


New Paltz taxpayers in 1728. 92


List of slave holders in 1755. . 93


Value of the Precinct of New Paltz in 1765.


93


CHAPTER XI


The contract of 1744. 103


Civil government 107


Neighborhoods annexed to New Paltz 107


Payments of rents and taxes 108


Tax receipt 108


CHAPTER XII


A short historical memorandum. IIO


Matters submitted to voters II2


CHAPTER XIII


The first manufacturing industry in Southern Ulster II5


Soldiers in the Colonial period. II6


Coats of arms in Huguenot families at New Paltz. II9


CHAPTER XIV


Tories in the Revolution. I22


Old frame houses 124


A famous old oak. 125


How they crossed the Wallkill I27


The Springtown merchant of 1800. . 129


Washington Irving and Martin Van Buren I30


Regimental training I3I


Amusements in the olden times I32


vii


CONTENTS


CHAPTER XV


PAGE


The New Paltz church.


I34


The two French pastors.


I37


The first stone church.


139 I4I


Rev. Barent Vrooman


144


Baptizing the children at Kingston.


I45


Connection between Church and State.


146


Rev. Johannes Mauritius Goetschius


147


The second stone church. 152


156


Rev. Peter D. Freligh.


157


Rev. William R. Bogardus


157


Rev. Douw Van Olinda.


158


CHAPTER XVI


Old county records at Kingston 160


Could not build the church by tax. 164


Wills of early New Paltz people. 164


Other valuable papers. 165


CHAPTER XVII


Articles of Association


167


CHAPTER XVIII


New Paltz in the Revolution. I71


First Ulster County Regiment. 172


Second Ulster County Regiment. 173


Third Ulster County Regiment. 173


Fourth Ulster County Regiment 174


CHAPTER XIX


Guarding the Frontier from Tories and Indians 178


Colonel Cantine's letters to General Clinton. 179


Money promised when he was appointed at New Paltz 180


Murdered by Indians 18I


Escaped from Indian captivity. 181


Paying his men. 182


Cowardly behavior of Orange County Militia. 182


Two hundred Indians reported-man shot. 183


Time of some of Col. Jonathan Hasbrouck's men expired. 183


Rev. Johannes Van Driessen


The Conferentia church 148


Rev. John H. Meyer.


viii


CONTENTS


PAGE


Gen. Clinton replies. 183


Plundered by the Militia. 184


Indian villages destroyed. 188


Still another attack on Wawarsing. 188


188


CHAPTER XX


History of farming at New Paltz 190


The poor soil of Kettleborough: 194


Clover and plaster the first commercial fertilizers 194


Ancient names of clearings on the Wallkill. 194


Racing horses 196


Depression among the farmers 196


The implements used by our Forefathers 197


The New Paltz turnpike


197


CHAPTER XXI


New Paltz village and town in 1820. 199


Springtown in 1820 203


Houses north of our village in 1820 204


Bontecoe in 1820. 206


Libertyville in 1820. 208


Ohioville in 1820


208


Houses south of our village in 1820


209


Butterville in 1820.


212


Plutarch in 1820.


215


Industries in this town in 1820


215


Teachers about 1820 and earlier


216


Alexander Doag


217


Gilbert C. Rice


218


Miss Ransome


218


CHAPTER XXII


The family of Louis Bevier the Patentee 223


Jean Bevier 227


Abraham Bevier


229


Samuel Bevier


230


Louis Bevier


230


Genealogy of the Bevier family


233


CHAPTER XXIII


The Deyo family at New Paltz


253


Pierre the Patentee.


256


Capt. Abram Deyo's men


ix


CONTENTS


Christian, son of Pierre the Patentee.


Jacobus Deyo


Abraham Deyo, son of Pierre the Patentee.


260 261 264


Soldiers in Capt. Abm. Deyo's Company.


264


Daniel Deyo


266 269


Jonathan Deyo


270


Philip Deyo


27I


The family of Hendricus, son of Pierre the Patentee.


273


CHAPTER


XXIV


The DuBois family at New Paltz


280


1


CHAPTER


XXV


Abraham DuBois, the Patentee.


293


CHAPTER XXVI


The family of Isaac DuBois, one of the New Paltz Patentees 293


Daniel, son of Isaac 294


Simon DuBois 299


Andries DuBois


302


Joseph DuBois


302


Benjamin DuBois


303


CHAPTER XXVII 1


Solomon DuBois, son of Louis the Patentee.


305


Hendricus DuBois


312


CHAPTER XXVIII


Louis DuBois, Jun., son of Louis the Patentee. 314


Louis, son of Louis Jun. 317


Jonathan, son of Louis, Jun. 318


Nathaniel, son of Louis, Jun


322


CHAPTER


XXIX


Military service of Col. Lewis DuBois.


325


CHAPTER


XXX


The Freer family at New Paltz 349


Hugo Senior, son of Hugo the Patentee 352


Isaac, son of Hugo Senior


360


PAGE


259


Capt. Abraham Deyo.


Simeon Deyo


X


CONTENTS


PAGE


Jonas, son of Hugo Senior. 361


Abraham, son of Hugo the Patentee. 363 Jacob, son of Hugo the Patentee 364


Jean, son of Hugo the Patentee.


365


CHAPTER XXXI


Abraham Hasbrouck, the Patentee. 368


Daniel, son of Abraham the Patentee. 370


Solomon, son of Abraham the Patentee 372 Joseph, son of Abraham the Patentee. 375


Col. Abraham, son of Joseph. 382


Isaac, son of Joseph and grandson of Abraham the Patentee. 386


Jacob A., son of Joseph of Guilford. 387


Benjamin, son of Joseph and grandson of Abraham the Patentee .. 389


Col. Jonathan, son of Joseph. 390


Rachel Hasbrouck's ride from Newburgh to Guilford. 393


Benjamin, son of Abraham the Patentee 394


CHAPTER XXXII


The family of Jean Hasbrouck the Patentee 397


The Stone Ridge Hasbroucks. 402


CHAPTER


XXXIII


The LeFevre family in America 407


The LeFevre family in New Paltz 409


The homestead on the plains 418


The Kettleborough LeFevres 422


The LeFevre family at Bontecoe 432


The Bloomingdale LeFevres.


448


CHAPTER XXXIV 45I


The Auchmoody family.


CHAPTER


XXXV


The Budd family


453


CHAPTER


XXXVI


The Hardenbergh family


455


Col. Johannes Hardenbergh of Rosendale.


460


The Wurts family.


CHAPTER XXXVII 464


CONTENTS xi


CHAPTER XXXVIII


PAGE


Old Dutch families at New Paltz and vicinity 467


CHAPTER


XXXIX


The Low family at New Paltz.


468


CHAPTER XL


The Klaarwater (Clearwater) family.


470


CHAPTER XLI


The Ean family


474


CHAPTER XLII


The Van Wagenen family at New Paltz


479


CHAPTER XLIII


The Elting family in New Paltz. 481


Roelif, the first Elting in New Paltz 483


Roelif Elting's children 484


Josias Elting and his descendants 486


The Elting homestead


487


The Hurley Eltings


497


CHAPTER XLIV


Families living in the congregation but not in the Precinct of New Paltz 499


The Schoonmaker family in Gardiner 499


The Ronk family 500


The Relyea family 502


The Smith family at Swartekill. 503


CHAPTER XLV


Genealogy of the French settlers of New Paltz to the third generation 505


r


ILLUSTRATIONS


PAGE


Ralph LeFevre Frontispiece


Mrs. Ralph LeFevre 3


Original deed from the Indians 16-17


Deed of gift to Jean Cottin. 24


Agreement to learn dressmaking trade 32


Deed from Anthony Crispell to Hugo Freer. 35


Tax list of 1712. 90 A famous old oak. I25


Old paper with signature of Rev. Pierre Daille I37


The first stone church. I30 The second stone church. I52


Sky Top 220


The Louis Bevier house at Marbletown 23I


The ancient document with signature of Pierre Deyo 258


The Deyo house at New Paltz 262 The house of Daniel Deyo at Ireland Corners 267 House of Hendricus Deyo at Bontecoe 272 274


Tombstone of Margerite Van Bummel, wife of Hendricus Deyo .. Receipts with signatures of Louis DuBois, the Patentee. 285


Document with signature of Abraham DuBois, the Patentee. 288


Tombstone of Abraham DuBois, the Patentee.


292


The old DuBois house or fort in this village. 295


Tombstone of Daniel DuBois in graveyard in this village.


298 Rev. Dr. Anson DuBois. 308


House of Capt. Louis J. DuBois.


320


House of Col. Lewis DuBois at Marlborough 324


The old Freer house in our village 348


Letter from Jean Giron to Hugo Freer, Senior, and wife. 355 The Abraham Hasbrouck house in our village. 367


Tombstone of Joseph Hasbrouck in the old graveyard in this village. 376


The Jean Hasbrouck house, now the Memorial House. 396


LeFevre tombstone in old burying ground in this village. 416


The house of Abraham LeFevre, one of the first settlers at Kettle- borough 429


House built by Maj. Isaac LeFevre at Bontecoe. 436


Scene on the Wallkill at Bontecoe. 439


i


xiv


ILLUSTRATIONS


PAGE


The house of Daniel LeFevre, great-grandfather of the author. 444


House of Col. Abraham J. Hardenbergh at Guilford. 459 Ancient map of the Patent. 462


Ruins of the Ean house at Bontecoe 475


The Eltinge homestead, originally the Bevier house 488 The oldest brick house in the town. 495


Louis Bevier of Marbletown. 506


History of New Paltz CHAPTER I


EVENTS PRECEDING THE SETTLEMENT


W ITH modesty, yet with confidence, we make the claim that the early history of no other portion of our land can excel in interest that of New Paltz. With the excep- tion of Kingston no other place in this part of the country was settled at so early a date. The New Paltz church was organized exactly forty years before the first church was erected in Poughkeepsie. Col. Jonathan Hasbrouck, grand- son of one of the early settlers of New Paltz, built Wash- ington's Headquarters at Newburgh. Col. Lewis DuBois, a great-grandson of one of the early settlers at New Paltz, built what was doubtless the first house at Marlborough, on the river front. Two other New Paltz men, John and Abram Bevier, were the first settlers in the town of Wa- warsing.


Peter Guimar, of Moir, in Santaigne, who was one of the pioneers of Orange county and one of the seven men who made a settlement in 1690 at what is now Cuddebackville, at the stone fort, which was for half a century an outpost of civilization, married Esther, daughter of Jean Hasbrouck, one of the New Paltz patentees.


But it is not only because New Paltz was the cradle of surrounding settlements, nor only on account of its an- tiquity, that we claim for New Paltz the most interesting place in the history of the early settlements. It is not be- cause the New Paltz patentees purchased the lands of the Indians before William Penn had performed a like gracious


2


HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ


deed, with like peaceful results, in Pennsylvania; it is not because New Paltz was one of the few Huguenot settle- ments in this country, and perhaps the only one in which the stock of original settlers was not speedily overwhelmed in a flood of new-comers from other European nationalities ; nor yet is it because the little community existed for half a century to some extent as a miniature republic-must we say aristocracy ?- in which the Dusine exercised judicial and legislative powers, and the church owned no higher authority than its own membership. No; it is for none of these facts, though rendering the history of New Paltz so unique and peculiar, that we claim for it the most interesting place in the narrative of early settlements. But it is for one other circumstance, coming down to our own day; it is because at New Paltz, as in no other place in our country, the homesteads have been handed down in the family ever since the first settlement. In the house in which I was born and of which I am at the present time the owner, my father lived before me, my grandfather spent his days there, my great-grandfather dwelt there. A few rods off my great-great-grandfather's house was built. In the old street in our village the Deyo house, the DuBois house and the houses of the two Hasbrouck brothers came down in the same family for nearly two hundred years.


While New Paltz was, to a great extent, the cradle of sur- rounding towns, the Huguenots kept their grip on their own old homesteads, and their conservatism we consider a more remarkable point, by far, than the early date of the settlement. In church matters this point in their character is still more noticeable, and whether the settlement at New Paltz is acknowl- edged to be the most interesting of any in the country or not, there can scarcely be a doubt that this claim will be conceded


3


HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ


in regard to the Reformed Church in our village. Over 200 years ago our church organized. By the grace of God it has grown and flourished from that time until the present day. For fifty years of its history the records, still in existence, were kept to a great extent in French; for seventy years longer in the Holland tongue, and afterwards in English. But, now that we have stated what there is peculiar in the early history of New Paltz, we must go back to show the causes that led up to that settlement.


Two hundred and thirty years have passed since the first settlers reared their humble homes in New Paltz. Of the his- tory previous to that time we know but little. We only know that they left their native land, on account of religious perse- cution, and after a residence of a short period in that portion of Germany, known as the Paltz, or Palatinate, came to the New World, from 1660 to 1675. The history of the French Hugue- nots, in their own country for a century preceding, had been a history of blood. The Reformation had not been slow to take deep root, and among the names of French reformers is that of sturdy John Calvin, whose fame has spread wherever Protestantism has obtained a foothold; but while, partly from political causes, the reformation succeeded in England and in the north of Germany, in France it had to fight, almost from the first, against the power of the court, the priesthood and the prevailing popular sentiment. Never- theless the Huguenots numbered in their ranks many of the nobility and a great portion of the most intelligent people. Three civil wars had raged between the Catholics and the Protestants.


The massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572, which was planned by Catharine De Medici, the wicked mother of Charles IX, the king, and was intended to destroy the


4


HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ


Protestants at one blow, had but strengthened their hands. Although outnumbered, ten to one, by the Catholics, they had gallantly sustained themselves in arms, upheld, in part, by moral support from Germany, as well as more tangible aid from Queen Elizabeth, of England. The death of Henry III left the Protestant Henry, of Navarre, as the legal heir to the crown, but the Catholics were determined that no heretic should sit on the throne of France. For years Henry waged an unequal war for his inheritance, with a courage and a gallantry that made his name famous, but the odds were too great; he found himself forced to give up his religion or continue a hopeless contest. He chose the former alternative, declaring that " the crown was worth a mass." Shortly afterward, in 1598, he granted the celebrated Edict of Nantes, which secured to Protestants freedom of conscience and all political and religious rights.


In 1610 Henry met his death at the hands of an assassin, and the Protestants being left without a protector their troubles again commenced. In 1628 Rochelle, which had been their stronghold and had been in their possession for seventy years, was taken, after a siege of fourteen months, during which so desperate a resistance was made that the population of the city was reduced, by war and famine, from 30,000 to 5,000 souls. Notwithstanding that Rochelle was wrested from their grasp, while Richelieu managed the realm, yet this was done rather as a political measure, be- cause Protestantism threatened to become a state within a state, than for the purpose of religious persecution. Riche- lieu was no bigot; in the thirty-years' war he aided the Protestants and the Huguenots could not complain much of persecution during his administration or that of his suc- cessor, Mazarin. But from the time of Mazarin's death,


5


HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ


·


in 1661, when Louis XIV himself assumed the reins of authority, until the formal revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, which was the last act in a series of persecutions, the Protestants of France suffered greatly. Before the formal revocation of the Edict whole troops of dissolute soldiers were let loose upon them, and frightful barbarities followed.


, Half a million of subjects of the French king left their native country and fled to foreign lands. Borne on this wave of immigration and prizing liberty of conscience above everything else, the brave-hearted men, who afterward set- tled New Paltz, fled across the frontier, and found an asylum in that part of Germany known as the Palatinate or Paltz- the name being borne now only by a castle on the Rhine. Here they could not long remain in peace, for the armies of their cruel monarch, in the wars which he almost constantly carried on with other European powers, repeatedly invaded and ravaged the Palatinate. In 1664 an army under Tu- renne, one of his generals, desolated that province without mercy, and it may be at this time some of our forefathers resolved to cross the Atlantic and escape from their merci- less foes.


At this time the Huguenots were flying to different por- tions of the New World, as well as Europe, for protection. As early as 1625 several families settled in New York, then in possession of the Dutch, and were the first permanent settlers. Others were to be found in Virginia, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and especially in South Carolina, where a large portion of the most honored names are of Huguenot origin. Scattered like leaves by the autumn blast, they were tossed hither and thither, and it is probable that by 1663 a score or more had found their way to Kingston-


6


HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ


called Esopus by the Dutch-then a flourishing village. We know that Louis DuBois, who was one of the first New Paltz immigrants, had been there two or three years at least before that time. In 1663 Kingston was burned by the Indians, and the wife and three children of Louis Du- Bois, the Walloon, as he was called, were among those carried away captive.


This Louis DuBois, who became the leader of the settle- ment at New Paltz, was usually called Louis, the Walloon, the Walloons being the residents of that part of Flanders lying between the Scheldt and Lys. He was born in the hamlet of Wicres, near Lille, in the province of Artois, in French Flanders, October 27, 1626, and was the son of Chre- tien DuBois, whose farm is still pointed out. Louis moved to Manheim, on the Rhine, the capital of the Palatinate, or Paltz, a little principality, now incorporated in Baden, and there he married Catharine Blancon, the daughter of a burgher residing there, named Matthew Blançon, who was also a native of Artois. Manheim was, at that time, a refuge for the Protestants from the neighboring parts of France, and Baird, in his Huguenot Emigration, says: "The Le- Fevers, Hasbroucks, Crispells, etc., were associated with Louis DuBois at Manheim."


Anthony Crispell was the first of the New Paltz patentees to come to America. He came in company with his father- in-law, Matthew Blanchan,* on the Gilded Otter ,arriving at New York in June, 1660. Governor Stuyvesant gave Blan- chan a letter to Sergeant Romp, in Esopus, whither they at once proceeded.


Louis DuBois, who was also a son-in-law of Blanchan, probably came over on the ship St. Jan Baptist, which


* There is no uniformity in the early records in the spelling of French surnames and therefore none is attempted in this book.


7


HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ


landed August 6, 1661. Blanchan had sojourned in Eng- land before crossing the ocean, and probably his two sons- in-law, likewise. Blanchan, DuBois and Crispell all got land at Hurley. In 1661 Louis DuBois' third son, Jacob, was presented for baptism at the church at Kingston, as still shown by the church register, that being one of the earliest entries.


In 1663, June 10, Hurley and part of Kingston were burned by the Indians, and the wife of Louis DuBois and three children were among those carried away captive. Likewise the two children of Matthew Blanchan, Jr., and the wife and child of Anthony Crispell.


Three months afterward an expedition under Captain Kregier, sent from New York, recovered the captives ; sur- prising the Indians at their fort near the Hogabergh, in Shawangunk. The story, which is dear to the Huguenot heart of New Paltz, is that when Captain Kregier and his company, directed by an Indian, attacked the savages at their place of refuge near the Shawangunk Kill, they were about to burn one or more captives at the stake, and the women commenced singing the 137th Psalm, which so pleased the red men that they deferred the proposed death by torture, and in the meantime Captain Kregier's band, with Louis DuBois and others, arrived and rescued the cap- tives from a horrible death, Louis DuBois himself killing with his sword an Indian who was in advance of the rest before the alarm could be raised. Captain Kregier's report says nothing about this. However, we shall not give up the tradition as it contains nothing irreconcilable with the report of Captain Kregier, which deals mainly with the fighting done by his soldiers, while tradition would dwell more upon the condition of the captives.


8


HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ


The tradition concerning the impending fate of the wife of Louis DuBois at the time of rescue is not credited by Mr. E. M. Ruttenber, the Orange county historian, who states his objections as follows :


" The story was repudiated as a statement of fact, first, on the authority of Indian customs. We do not recall a single instance where a woman was burned at the stake by the Indians. They killed female prisoners on the march sometimes, when they were too feeble to keep up, but very rarely indeed after reaching camp .-- Mrs. DuBois and her companions had been prisoners from June 19th to Septem- ber 5th, or nearly three months before they were rescued from captivity. During all that time they had been guarded carefully at the castle of the Indians, and held for ransom or exchange, to which end negotiations had been opened, the Indians asking especially the return of some of their chiefs who had been sent to Curaçoa and sold as slaves by Governor Stuyvesant.




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