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F 129 NORq
1800
Class
Book
PRESENTED BY
HISTORY
OF THE
TOWN OF NEW WINDSOR Orange County, N. Y.
By Edward M. Ruttenber.
NEWBURGH, N. Y. Printed for The Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands ?
1911.
NEWBURGH JOURNAL PRINT. NEWBURGH, N. Y.
Fift Hist. Soc of newburgh Bay & the Highlands JAA 11919
9.9.13. 1 Tet. 13
EDWARD M. RUTTENBER AUTHOR OF STANDARD INDIAN AND LOCAL HISTORIES
PREFACE
-
This volume is published by The Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands, from a manuscript which was given to it by Mr. Ed- ward M. Ruttenber, shortly before his death.
The Society has so much faith in the accuracy of Mr. Ruttenber's work along historical lines that no effort has been made to amend any of the statements contained in the manuscript except in those few in- stances in which the members of the publication committee has personal knowledge of some facts modifying Mr. Ruttenber's statements.
To claim that any work of history is absolutely free from inaccuracies would be unwise. But we feel confident that out of the multiplicity of de- tails set forth in the following pages few errors will be discovered.
It is to be observed that the history is not intended to be brought up to the present day. It covers only the period from the earliest settle- ment of the Town of New Windsor to about the year 1870.
With a deep sense of the gratitude due to Mr. Ruttenber for his pains- taking labors in ascertaining and perpetuating the facts connected with the early history of this section of the Empire State, we submit this vol- ume to the public with the hope that our work in editing it will not do dis- credit to the work of Mr. Ruttenber in gathering the materials.
THE PUBLICATION COMMITTEE OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NEW- BURGH BAY AND THE HIGHLANDS.
February 1, 1912.
TOLL, INDI
2
OID TOLL GATE
FORMERLY STOOD ON NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR TURNPIKE, VERY NEAR THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF THE TOWN OF NEW WINDSOR)
Reproduced from
Pleuresque America." by permission of D Appleton & Company
History of the Town of New Windsor
CHAPTER I.
LOCATION-PHYSIOLOGY-NAME-ROADS-SCHOOLS, ETC.
LOCATION.
New Windsor, originally the extreme southeastern precinct and town of the county of Ulster, and, under the reorganization of the counties of Orange and Ulster in 1799, the central northeastern town of the county of Orange, is bounded on the north by the city and town of Newburgh and the town of Montgomery, on the west by Montgomery and Hamp- tonburgh, on the south by Blooming-Grove and Cornwall, and on the east by Hudson's river. Substantially in the same latitude, and of cor- responding elevation, its mean temperature may be accepted as the same as that of Newburgh, viz: 50 deg. 10 min. The surface of the town is rolling and hilly. The soil may be classed in four divisions. From the Hudson to Muchattoes hill it is gravelly; more immediately adjoining the Hudson deposits of clay underlie the sand .* The southern spur of Muchattoes hill as far west as Vail's Gate, is rough and covered with boulders to an extent that makes its improvement difficult. West from this ridge and until within a mile of Rock Tavern, a rolling upland pre- vails. The extreme western part is more or less broken by slate ridges. There are many broad and fertile valleys, and there are also hills (so called locally) that are cultivated to their tops. Muchattoes hill, or Snake hill as it is more generally called, on its northern border, the only considerable elevation in the town, rises six hundred feet above tide water. The creeks and streams are Murderer's or Moodna, Silver Stream and Beaver-dam, Goldsmith and Colemantown creeks. Quas- saick creek constitutes a portion of the northern boundary of the town and gives to it several valuable mill privileges .** Its marsh or swamp
*Drift Deposits .- South of the Quassaick creek the deposits on the slate rock of the Hudson river group is first drift boulders, pebbles, gravel, and clay ; above this blue clay covered with gray clay, and above the whole sand and gravel. The height of these deposits is altogether about one hundred feet. The whole plateatt adjoining the Hudson river presents a soil gravelly, sandy, clayey-a mixture forming a warm and fertile soil .- Geological Report.
** Hist. Orange Co. and Newburgh, 68, 69, etc. Quassaick is Indian, signify- ing stony brook ; Murderer's creek is so called from a tradition which has been woven upon the original Dutch title of Martelaer. Its Indian name is presumed to have been Waoraneck.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF NEW WINDSOR.
land is the Big Swamp in the northwest part of the town. Washington Lake, for many years known as Little Pond, lies midway on its northern border; it has an elevation of two hundred and thirty feet, and covers, including overflowed swamp, an area of one hundred and seven acres. The Newburgh water-works take its waters, as well as the waters of Silver Stream. The principal agricultural products are rye, wheat, corn, oats, hay, butter and milk ; paper and brick are the almost exclusive man- ufactures, although milling, cotton and woolen goods, snuff and tobacco, and iron implements and glass, have at different times been prosecuted with more or less success. The local divisions of the town are New Windsor village, Moodna or Orangeville, Vail's Gate or Mortonville, Little Britain, the Square and Rock Tavern; Hunting-Grove, a division so called in its early history, is now in Hamptonburgh. It has twelve school and joint school districts, and five churches. The Newburgh Branch of the Erie railroad, and the Newburgh and New York railroad, pass through the eastern part of the town. The town has an area of 20.871 acres, of which about 17,500 are improved. Its population in 1790 was 1,819; 1830, 2,310; 1865, 2,697 ; 1875, 2,455.
CIVIL ORGANIZATION-NAME.
The district of which the town now forms a part had its first local government under the patent to Captain John Evans, who, being vested with the privileges and powers pertaining to a lordship and manor, had authority to establish a manorial court. It is not probable, however, that during the continuance of his patent (1694 to 1699) any semblance of civil authority was exercised. After the vacation of his patent and with the advent of the Palatines at Newburgh in 1709, that portion of the Evans patent lying in the county of Ulster, embracing the district be- tween Murderer's creek and New Paltz, was organized as the Precinct of the Highlands, and attached to New Paltz. In this relation it remain- ed until 1743, when three full precincts, having all the officers of towns and exercising all their duties, were established by act of the colonial as- sembly. These precincts were known and called "by the name of the Wallkill Precinct, Shawangunk Precinct,* and Highland Precinct." The latter was more particularly described in the act as "bounded on the east by Hudson's river; on the south by the line dividing the coun- ties of Ulster and Orange; on the west by the precincts of Wallkill and
*Shawangunk Precinct an organization contemporary with the Precinct of the Highlands, and in its original boundaries embraced the territory covered by the subsequent Precinct of Wallkill and Shawangunk.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF NEW WINDSOR.
Shawangunk and the neighborhoods annexed to New Paltz, and on the north by the bounds or line of New Paltz town." The precinct meet- ings were to be held "at the house of John Humphrey, Jr., on the first Tuesday in April, annually, for the election of precinct officers." It con- tinued in existence until 1762, when it was divided into the precincts of Newburgh and New Windsor, "by a line beginning at the mouth of Quassaick creek and running thence along the south bounds of a tract of land commonly called the German patent, to another tract granted to Alexander Baird & Co., and then along the southerly bounds of the last mentioned tract to the Wallkill precinct;" all the land theretofore comprehended "within the said Highland precinct lying to the south- ward of the said dividing line, to be called by the name of New Windsor Precinct." More clearly defined boundaries appear from those giving the limits of the Newburgh and Wallkill precincts, the latter being ex- tended on the south "to the north bounds of two thousand acres of land granted to Patrick Hume, by the north and west bounds of the lands granted to Cornelius Low and others, and by the northwest and south- west bounds of two thousand acres of land granted to Phineas MacIn- tosh." while the bounds of Newburgh extended south to Quassaick creek and thence west along the south line of the Baird patent. The latter line has never been changed; the western line, however, was destroyed by the organization of the town of Hamptonburgh in 1830. The dis- trict remained under the title of "precinct" until 1788, when, under the general law of that year, it was constituted the "town" of New Windsor, and its boundaries defined as follows: "All that part of the said county of Orange bounded easterly by the middle of Hudson's river, southerly by an east and west line from the mouth of Murderer's creek,* and west- erly and northerly by a line beginning at the west side of Hudson's river at the mouth of Quassaick creek, and running from thence along the south bounds of a tract of land commonly called German patent and the southerly bounds of a tract of land granted to Alexander Baird and Com- pany to the east bounds of two thousand acres of land granted to Cad- wallader Colden, and then across the same to the most northerly corner of the land granted to Patrick Hume, and thence along the westerly bounds thereof to the lands granted to Patrick McKnight, and then along the same southwesterly to the southerly corner thereof, and then con- tinuing the last mentioned line to the town of Blooming-Grove so as to include the lands formerly of Fletcher Matthews."
* The line of the county of Orange prior to 1779.
** As above stated the Western boundary was changed by the erection of Hamptonburgh.
6
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF NEW WINDSOR.
The name of the town is from Windsor, England, with "new" pre- fixed. By whom it was conferred cannot now be ascertained, but un- doubtedly by some one of the early settlers whose associations with the English government were such as to lead him to a lively remembrance of his royal sovereign. It has its first record in connection with the mis- sionary labors of the London "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," in the annals of which it is written (1728), that "the Society has received many fresh applications from congregations of peo- ple in the Plantations to have missionaries sent to them ; particularly from the inhabitants of New Windsor, in Ulster county ;" and during the following year (1729), that "the Society have received a letter from the Rev. Mr. Vesey, at New York, enclosing one from Francis Harrison, Esq., one of his Majesty's council of that Province, wherein he acquaints, that, pursuant to the decree of the Society, he has inquired into the num- ber, condition and circumstances of the inhabitants of New Windsor and parts adjacent, and is informed this district is twenty miles from north to south and sixteen from east to west, and contains about four hundred inhabitants; that the chief of them live in good credit and reputation ; but that there is no clergyman to officiate among this large body of peo- ple within eighty miles distance,"-from which it appears that the name was then applied to a specific portion of a proposed parish district. Two years later a minister was appointed for the parish who preached at three different stations within its limits, viz: New Windsor, on the Hudson; at what is now known as St. David's in Hamptonburgh (then Goshen) ; and at St. Andrews in Montgomery-the latter station erecting the first edifice (a log house with a fire-place) for divine worship .* A few years later the name was generally accepted as defining the southern part of the Precinct of Highlands, and is of record in that character in a report, made by Thomas Ellison in 1755, of the number of slaves there- in, the precise language being: "In the Southern Division of the Pre- cinct of New Windsor otherwise called the Highlands." In the subse- quent division of the precinct of the Highlands, and the erection there- from of the precincts of Newburgh and New Windsor, the latter assumed the name by which it had already become specifically recognized.
TOWN RECORDS.
The records of the town begin on the first Tuesday of April, 1763, when "agreeable to the directions of an act of the Governor, Council,
* This building was located at the fork of the road now leading from St. An- drews to Shawangunk and Walden.
7
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF NEW WINDSOR.
and General Assembly of the province of New York-an act entitled 'an act for dividing the precinct of the Highlands, in Ulster county, in two precincts (by a line therein mentioned), one to be called by the name of New Windsor precinct, and the other by the name of Newburgh pre- cinct,' " a meeting was held at the house of Judah Harlow, for the pur- pose of electing precinct officers, who were chosen as follows: Joseph Belknap, clerk; George Harris, supervisor; Samuel Brewster, George Denniston, James Humphrey, assessors; Alexander Denniston, constable and collector ; Judah Harlow and Capt. James Clinton, overseers of the roads ; David Crawford and John Nicoll, overseers of the poor; Andrew Crawford and William Lawrence, fence viewers.
ROADS.
The earliest roads of the town were the King's highway, better known locally as the Goshen road, and the highway now known as the Little Britain road. The first extended through the town from north to south, and the second from east to west. At a later period connecting roads were opened from the Orangeville settlement on Murderer's creek; from Little Britain to Coldenham (the Ridge road), and in the village of New Windsor* The latter, however, were not recognized by the town au- thorities. In 1766 the roads of the town were defined, in the appoint- ment of overseers, as follows: "Moses Fowler, overseer from Mr. Falls' saw mill to New Windsor; George Denniston, from the west line of Johnson's patent to Mr. Falls' saw mill; Thomas King, from the west line of Johnson's patent to the north line of the precinct; Francis Mande- ville, for Goshen road and the roads about Murderer's creek." In 1769 the road district and overseers were: "John Galloway, overseer from William Mulliner's to the precinct line westerly ; James Denniston, from William Mulliner's to the top of Snake Hill; Theophilus Corwin, from the top of Snake Hill through New Windsor to Hudson's river, and up Goshen road as far as the road that leads off to Arthur's mill, and to take all the inhabitants on the north side of Murderer's creek as high as they are to work; Samuel Arthur at the creek and the rest of the road upwards, and to take the remainder of the inhabitants left therein."
Patrick McClaughrey, James McClaughrey and George Clinton, com- missioners under the act of 1770, divided the town into road districts as follows :
"The first or New Windsor District-bounded North by the precinct line,
* The road known in Newburgh records as "the Wallkill Road," running west of Muchattoes hill from the Little Britain road to Newburgh, is also of very early date, but has no specific record in the minutes of New Windsor.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF NEW WINDSOR.
West by the top of Snake Hill, and a straight line running from thence to where the King's Road meets Goshen Road near the house of Timothy Wood, and South- erly and Easterly by the East side of said King's Road and the land of Col. Thom- as Ellison and the Hudson River, including in said district the road leading from Goshen road back of William Ellison's house to New Windsor.
"The second or Creek District bounded as follows: To the North and West by the New Windsor district to where the road leading from Little Britain to the Creek or Brewster's Forge meets said New Windsor District; south by the county line where the Goshen Road crosses it; West by a straight line from thence to where the said road leading from Little Britain to the Creek leaves the New Windsor road, and Southerly and Easterly by the south of said road leading to New Windsor and the New Windsor district, including in said district last mentioned the said road leading from the New Windsor road to the creek or Brewster's Forge.
"The Middle or Third District is bounded as follows: To the East by the New Windsor and Creek districts; Southward by the County line and Northward by the precinct line; Westward by a line running Northerly from the County line, so as to include Alexander Falls. Jr., James McClaughry, and Charles Clinton, Esq., and cross the road one chain West of William Mulliner's house, and includ- ing in said district Alexander Falls, Senr., Robert Buchanan, and the inhabitants north of them and to the East of the Great Meadow to the precinct line, and Northward by the precinct line.
"The West or Fourth District bounded as follows : East by the Middle District, South by the County line and North and West by the precinct line."
The districts designated were generally known and called, and so entered on the precinct record as I, The New Windsor district; 2, The Creek district; 3, The Little Britain district ; 4, The Hunting-Grove dis- trict. In 1772, the Creek district was divided. In 1774 the Middle and the Hunting-Grove districts were divided and a new district called the Silver Stream district, established; and in 1781 the Little Britain district was divided and a new district established called the Stonefield district .*
The roads or streets of the village of New Windsor were dedicated to public use by the proprietors of the plot in 1749. The dedication is entered in their minutes as follows: "Ebenezer Seely, Esq., shall execute a conveyance of the land laid out in New Windsor for roads to Vincent Matthews, Joseph Sackett, Hezekiah Howell, John Yelverton, and Thomas Jones (executor of Dr. Evan Jones) and their heirs and assigns forever for the purpose hereinafter mentioned, to wit: That the said land shall be and remain forever hereafter for the use of the inhabitants and settlements made at New Windsor as public streets or roads according as they are laid out upon a draught or plan of New Windsor."
The Newburgh and New Windsor turnpike company was incorporat- ed by act of legislature passed April 2d, 1806. Capital, $5,000. Charles Clinton, Daniel Stringham, John McAuley, George Monell, Hugh Walsh,
*Town Records. Stonefield was the residence of Rev. John Moffat, where he kept a grammar school. It was on this road leading from Little Britain to Wash- ingtonville, and the residence of Robert Shaw.
9
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF NEW WINDSOR.
Isaac Hasbrouck, Selah Reeve, Joseph Morrell, Abraham Schultz, Rich- ard Trimble, Jonas Williams, John D. Nicoll, and Samuel Lockwood, were the first directors. The road extended from Newburgh to New Windsor village, where it connected with the Cornwall turnpike.
The Snake Hill turnpike company was incorporated March 24, 1815. Capital, $14,000. Jonathan Hasbrouck, William Taylor, Hiram Weller, Nathaniel DuBois, and Jonathan Hedges, directors.
The New Windsor and Blooming-Grove turnpike company was in- corporated April 3d, 1801. Capital, $7,500. Directors : John Chandler, Richard Goldsmith, William Adams, James Carpenter, William A. Thompson, Abraham Schultz, Hezekiah Howell, Johannes Decker, Jona- than Brooks, Jr., Thomas A. Thompson, Isaac Schultz, and John Gale, Jr. The line of the road was "from the village of New Windsor to the intersection of the Goshen and Warwick road."
SCHOOLS.
The first entry in regard to public schools is at the annual election in 1796, when David Dill, John Dill, Daniel Borden, John Denniston, and Francis Crawford, were elected commissioners, with authority to "buy a book at the expense of the town" in which to make entry of school accounts. The same persons were reappointed in 1797, but no further entry appears until 1813, when, on the 10th of May, at a special election, Joseph Morrell, Thomas King, and William Mulliner, were elected com- missioners of schools, and Thurston Wood, David Dill, and Thomas Fulton, inspectors of schools. On the 18th September, 1814, the com- missioners named divided the town into nine school districts, viz : No. I, village of New Windsor District; No. 2, Murderer's Creek District ; No. 3, Good Hope District; No. 4, Center District; No. 5, Square District ; No. 6, Little Britain Meeting House District; No. 7, Union District; No. 8, Good-Will District; No. 9, Hunting-Grove District. In 1816 one of the districts was divided, making ten. The first report of at- tendance and distribution of public money is recorded as follows: Num- ber of children between five and fifteen years, 597; amount of public money, $258.75.
There were, probably, some private schools in the town as early as 1740. Dr. Joseph Young writes in regard to the education of his older brother, Thomas: "Our grandmother, Jane, was a good English scholar and learned us to read. As there were but few children in their new settlement (Little Britain), they had no schoolmaster; but my father, who was a tolerable arithmetician, undertook to teach him with the as-
IO
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF NEW WINDSOR.
sistance of Cocker's Arithmetic." This was written of Thomas when he was six or seven years old, and as he was born in 1731, it shows that there was no school at that time. He adds: "Some time after, Mr. John Wilson, a famous mathematician, opened a school about four miles dis- tant, to which the young self-taught student was sent. Mr. Wilson's mathematical fame soon procured hin an invitation to open a school in New York, where he removed." Rev. John Moffat was probably Mr. Wilson's successor. He was the pastor of Goodwill Church from 1751 to 1765. The authority already quoted continues: "Fortunately there came a minister to the parish who was a good linguist, under whom he completed his Latin education." The description and the periods to which it refers alike point to Mr. Moffat, who was the pastor of Good- will church from 1751 to 1765, and whose last years are known to have been employed as an instructor. His school was known as "Moffat's Academy." It was situated on the road leading from Little Britain to Washingtonville on the farm now (1880) owned by Robert Shaw. The house was one story and a half, with basement. The school was kept in the upper rooms, Mr. Moffat and his family occupying the basement. The school was partly, if not wholly, broken up during the Revolution. While the probabilities favor Mr. Moffat, we find it written in connec- tion with the education of James and George Clinton, that the latter attended a school conducted by Rev. Daniel Main, a minister from Scot- land.
SUPPORT OF POOR-LICENSES.
The support of the poor of the town was in the manner provided by law. The first public tax appearing on record was under the act of the assembly, passed December 31st, 1762, when the sum of twenty pounds was raised to pay expenses of previous years. In 1770, twenty shillings only was raised; in 1778, eighty pounds ($200) ; 1779, one hundred and fifty pounds ; 1780, five hundred pounds ($1,250), but this amount prob- ably represents depreciation in currency rather than an increase in pauperism. In 1782 the practice of selling the support of paupers to the lowest bidder was introduced and followed for many years. The town is now included in the county system.
Licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquors have been issued since 1796, in which year the fees received amounted to $65. In 1815 the sum of $88 was received, and nine tavern and six permit or store licenses were granted. These figures are introduced merely as the foundation of comparative statistics. The local travel of half a century ago, how-
II
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF NEW WINDSOR.
ever, required a far greater number of taverns than at the present time or since the introduction of railroads.
POST OFFICES.
The first post office in the town was at Little Britain. It was es- tablished May 29, 1824-Hamilton Morrison, postmaster ; Chas. Palmer, postmaster 1834. The second, the New Windsor post office, was estab- lished February 19, 1829-Abraham Schultz, postmaster; John Hall, postmaster, 1834. The third, Mortonville, was established April 10, 1850-John D. Vail, postmaster. The fourth, Moodna, the date of es- tablishment not ascertained.
12
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF NEW WINDSOR.
CHAPTER II.
PATENTS AND FIRST SETTLEMENTS-PIONEER ERA.
Originally covered by the patent to Capt. John Evans, the district embraced, when it was constituted a precinct in 1762, patents and por- tions of patents* issued as follows: 1, Patrick MacGregorie, 160 acres, August 24, 1721; 2, William Chambers and William Southerland, 1,000 acres, September 2, 1709; 3, Charles Huddy and Philip Brooks, 4,000 acres (in part), February 20, 1709-subsequently included in a grant to Mary Ingoldsby and her daughter Mary Pinhorn, August 12, 1720; 4, John Haskell, 2,000 acres, April 9, 1719, and 2,000 acres, August 24, 1721; 5, Vincent Matthews, 800 acres, June 17, 1720; 6, John Johnson, Jr., 1,000 acres, February 3, 1720; 7, James Henderson, 1, 184 acres (in part), February 12, 1722; 8, Vincent Pierce, 1,000 acres (in part), July 21, 1721 ; 9, Lewis Morris, 1,000 acres, July 21, 1721 ; 10, Andrew John- son, 2,000 acres, July 19, 1719; II, Patrick Hume, 2,000 acres, Novem- ber 29, 1721; 12, Cornelius Low and Company, 3,292 acres (mainly), March 17, 1720; 13, Richard Van Dam, 1,000 acres (in part), June 30, 1720; 14, Phineas McIntosh, 2,00 acres (mainly), April 9, 1719. As defined by the boundaries of 1801, the town included, in addition to the foregoing, a considerable portion of the patent to Cadwallader Colden (15), granted April 9, 1719 .** Portions of the Low, McIntosh, and other patents were cut off by the erection of the town of Hamptonburgh in 1830, but all the patents enumerated are represented in the land titles of the town.
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