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This facsimile edition has been made available through the efforts of the Rockland County (New York) Public Librarians Association
Green, Frank Bertangue
974. 728 The history of Rockland County, by Frank Bertangue Green, M. D. New York, A. S. Barnes, 1886. 444p.
1. Rockland County, New York - History
THE
HISTORY
OF
ROCKLAND COUNTY
BY
FRANK BERTANGUE GREEN, M. D.
A. S. BARNES & CO., NEW YORK. 1886.
1
1 1
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1886, BY FRANK BERTANGUE GREEN, M. D. In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER 1.
The Indian tribes of Rockland County. Their dress. personal habits, weapons and utensils. Religious condition. De Vries Colony. Sketch of De Vries. Wars with the Indians. De- struction of Vriesendael. Treaties with the Indians. Disappearance of aborigines.
CHAPER II.
Van Werckhoven applies for a patent at Tappan. Claes Jansen's patent. Paulsen and Dowse Harmanse patents. De Harte patent. Orangetown patent. Welch and Marshall or Quaspeck patent. Honan and Hawden or Kakiat patent. Evan's patent. Wawayanda patent. Cheesecocks patent. Lancaster Symes patent. Stony Point patent. Ellison and Roome patent. Kempe, Lamb and Crom patent. Patents for lands in Ramapo. Lockhart patent.
CHAPTER 1H.
Early real estate speculation. Transfers of the De llarte patent. Survey of the boundaries between the De Harte and Cheesecocks patent. Sales from the Quaspeck patent. Settlement of division line between the Quaspeck and Kakiat patents. Division of the Kakiat patent. Sales from the Kakiat patent. Settlement of division line between the Kakiat and Cheesecocks patent. Sales of land from the Cheesecocks patent. Sales of land from the Stony Point patents. Trans- fers of land in Ramapo. The settlement of the Orangetown patent. The different systems of patronymics used by the Dutch and the origin of Dutch family names.
CHAPTER IV.
Organization of Orange County including the present Rockland. Physical condition of the County at the time of erection. Fraudulent election returns from it. First officers. Establish- ment of a court. Early census returns. Organization of the first church society. Early super- visors' records. Building of the first church edifices at Tappan, Clarkstown and Kakiat. Pun- ishments inflicted on malefactors. Establishment of church societies north of the mountains. Opening of highways. Erection of County buildings north of the mountains. The establishment of inns. The beginning of the controversy with Great Britain.
CHAPTER V.
THE CIVIL HISTORY OF THE REVOLUTION.
A brief review of the ideas which led the colonists to revolt. A General Congress called for. It convenes. Election of Delegates from this State. Organization of the Sons of Liberty in New York. Organization of the Committee of Correspondence and Safety in Orange County. Its duties during the Revolution. Election of Delegates to a Provincial Congress. Organization of the State Government and Adoption of the Constitution. Synopsis of the first Constitution. First Election of State Officers. Recapitulation of the Revolution in Civil Government. Civil List of our County till the formation of a Federation.
iv.
CHAPTER VI.
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
The Militia Force of our County at the outbreak of the War. Organization of Troops. In- subordination among them. Building Fort Clinton. The Water Front Visited by a Hostile Fleet. Retreat of the Continental Army through the County. The Forays of the Enemy in our County, and the patriotic struggles to defend it. Washington encamps at Ramapo. From thence marches toward Philadelphia. The Battle of Fort Clinton. The construction of the West Point Chain. Massacre at Old Tappan. Capture of Stony Point by the British. Its re-capture by General Wayne. The Continental Army Encamps at Tappan. The treason of Arnold. Trial and Exe- cution of Andre. March of the Continental Army through the County to beseige Yorktown.
CHAPTER VII.
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
Events at Tappan and Sneden's Landing, Conflicts between the British and Shore Guard at Piermont and Haverstraw. Naval fight in Tappan Zee. Conflicts at Nyack. The depredations committed by Cow-boys in the County. Forays at Slaughter's Landing. Joshua Hett Smith. Invasions of the Southern part of our County by the Enemy. Acts of individual bravery and suffering. Account of Claudius Smith. Confiscation of property at the close of the War. Roll of the names of men who served in the armies of the Revolution,
CHAPTER VIII.
Dreadful financial condition of the County at the close of the Revolution. Energy of the peo- ple to re-establish business. The first houses of the settlers. Later architecture. Domestic life among the Dutch : Their occupation and manner of work. The modes of travel in early days. The style of dress. Amusements. Causes of veneration for the clergy. Church attendance. Funerals. Forms of old wills.
CHAPTER IX.
The causes which led to the creation of a Federation. Their slight influence on this section. The feeling among the people regarding it and the reason for that feeling. The vote of the delegates at the Convention. Reasons why Rockland County was erected. Its boundaries. Its townships. Its first officers.
CHAPTER X.
EARLY INDUSTRIES OF ROCKLAND COUNTY.
The Hassenclever Iron Mine and Rockland Nickel Company Mine. Conglomerate sand- stone and freestone quarries. Dater's Works. Works at Sloatsburgh. Ramapo Works. Brick Manufacture. Knickerbocker Ice Company.
CHAPTER XI.
The early militia of Rockland County. War of 1812. The militia of the County called upon for service. The companies of Captains Blauvelt and Snedeker leave for Harlem. The Light Horse ordered to report for duty. Organization of a batallion of artillery. Desertions. Organ. ization of the National Guard. Muster roll of the militia of 1812.
V.
CHAPTER XII.
Proposition for a turnpike from Nyack to Suffern : Bitter opposition. The bill as passed. Renewals of the charter. An act incorporating the New Antrim and . Waynesburgh Company, passed. The beginning of steamboat communication with New York. Later steamboats. Char- ters for ferry-boats. Chronological list of steamboats. Opening of the Erie and other railroads.
CHAPTER XIII.
History of the Reformed Church at Tappan, at Clarkstown. Of the " Brick " or Reformed Church at West New Hempstead. Of the Reformed Church at Nyack, at Piermont, at Spring Valley. IIIstory of the " English " or Presbyterian Church at Hempstead. Of the Presbyterian Church at Ilaverstraw, at Ramapo, at Greenbush, at Nyack, at Waldberg, at Stony Point, at Pal- isades, and of the Central and Mountville Presbyterian Churches. History of the Baptist Church at Nanuet, at Haverstraw, at Viola, at Piermont, at Nyack, at Spring Valley.
CHAPTER XIV.
History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Rockland County. History of the Methodist Protestant Church at Haverstraw and Tomkins Cove. History of the Roman Catholic Church in Rockland County. Ilistory of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Rockland County. History of the Universalist Church at Nyack and Orangeville; of the Quaker Church at Ladentown ; of the True Reformed Church at Monsey, at Nanuet and at Tappan. History of the Congre- gational Church at Monsey and Tallmans. Of the M. E. Zion at Nyack and at Haverstraw. History of the Union " Stone Church," or Upper Nyack, Wayside Chapel, Lake Avenne Baptist, West Nyack Chapel and Steven's Sunday Schools. History of the Rockland County Sabbath School Association.
CHAPTER XV.
Slavery in Rockland County. The " Underground Railroad." The County Buildings. The Rockland County Bible Society. The Rockland County Medical Society. Agricultural Society. Rockland County Teachers' Association. The Rockland County Historical Society. Civil List of the County.
CHAPTER XVI.
PERIOD OF CIVIL WAR
The political feeling in Rockland County and Election of 1860. Effect of the shot on Sum- ter. Split of the Democratic Party into Peace and War factions. Early volunteering and organi- zation of companies. Movement among the Union Men to render aid to volunteers and their families. The early conception and growth of the Rockland County branches of the U. S. San- itary Commission. Outburst of anger among the disloyal at the order for a draft. Organization of secret societies among the loyal. History of the drafts. Election of 1864. Joy over the news of the end of the conflict. The Census of Rockland County's contributions to the War.
CHAPTER XVII. ORANGETOWN.
Erection of the Town : Area : Origin of Name : Census : First Town Meeting. Histories of Tappan, Greenbush, Middletown, Nyack, Piermont, Palisades, Orangeville, Orangeburgh, Pearl River. Railroad from Sparkill to Nyack. Highland and Midland Avennes. Town Officers.
vi.
CHAPTER XVIII.
HAVERSTRAW.
Origin of Name : Erection into a Township : Area : Census. Histories of Haverstraw Vil- lage, Thiell's Corners, Gurnee's Corners or Mount Ivy, Garnerville, Samsondale, Johnsontown, West Haverstraw, Monroe and Haverstraw Turnpike, Ilaverstraw Community, Town Officers.
CHAPTER XIX. RAMAPO.
Date of Erection : Area : Origin of Name : First Town Meeting : Census. Histories of Suf- ferns, Sloatsburgh, Dater's or Pleasant Valley, Sterlington, Ramapo, Hilburn, Kakiat or New Hempstead, Sherwoodville, Ladentown, Mechanicsville or Viola, Cassady's Corners, Spring Val- ley, Monsey, Tallman's, Scotland, Pomona. History of the Old Taverns. New Jersey and New Vork Railroad Stations. The Orange Turnpike. Stages. Town Officers.
CHAPTER XX. CLARKSTOWN.
Origin of Name : Erection of the Town : Area : First Town Meeting : Census. History of Clarkesville, New City, Rockland Lake, Nanuet, Dutch Factory, Mackie's and Stagg's Corners, Waldberg, Snedeker's or Waldberg Landing, Strawtown, Bardon's Station. Peat Beds. Silver Spoon Factory. The Brewery. Town Officers.
CHAPTER XXI.
STONY POINT.
Erection of the Town : Origin of Name : Area : First Town Meeting : Census. History of Grassy Point, Stony Point, Tomkin's Cove, Caldwell's Landing, Doodletown, Iona Island, Stony Point Promontory, Bear Hill, Pingyp' Hill. The House of the Good Shepherd. Historical Trees. Town Officers.
ERRATUM.
Chapter III, page 36, line 6. For "Abraham Lydecker-step-son of Elizabeth, &c., " read : step-son of Sarah.
HISTORY OF ROCKLAND COUNTY
CHAPTER I.
INDIAN HISTORY.
THE INDIAN TRIBES OF ROCKLAND COUNTY-THEIR DRESS, PERSONAL HABITS, WEAPONS AND UTENSILS-RELIGION-DE VRIES' COLONY- SKETCH OF DE VRIES-WARS WITH THE INDIANS-DESTRUCTION OF VRIESENDALE-TREATIES WITH THE INDIANS-DISAPPEARANCE OF THE ABORIGINES.
Hudson, sailing in search of a northwest passage that would bring to his patrons the wealth of the Indies by a shorter route than that about the capes, anchored inside of Sandy Hook on September 3, 1609. He had discovered not the strait he sought, but a New Amsterdam, that, under a different name, was to excel the old Amsterdam in metropolitan grandeur.
He found his discovery to be a land " as pleasant with grass and flow- ers, and goodly trees as ever he had seen," and peopled by a race whose birthright those that followed Hudson were soon to obtain by crushing that race from existence.
The " olive colored, well-built, naked savages," who inhabited this County, belonged to the Algonquin family, and were divided into the Tappan, Rewechnougs, Rechgawawaneks, Rumachenanks, or Haverstraw, and doubtless, where tribal affiliation was so close, the Hackinsaek tribes. Throughout this section game was abundant, and from it, and the fish that could be obtained in the many rivers and lakes that water the County, the Indian not only obtained food, the deer skin or woven turkey-feather mantle, " a fathom square," that fell from his shoulders, and his mocca- sins, but also from the bears, wolves, deer, foxes, beavers and otters, ac- quired the skins so much valued by the Dutch, and with which he started a thriving trade.
His life was simple. Like all people who depend for food upon the re- sults of fishing and the chase, he was improvident to the last degree. Taciturn and brave, he spoke little of his deeds of prowess, and considered those, who were loquacious, as idle boasters. Unforgiving and vindictive,
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he waited for the object of his anger with quiet pertinacity, concealing his passion with great subtlety till the hour for its consummation, and then wreaking his vengeance unforgivingly. If he met his enemy on an equal footing he would fight fairly, but regarded it as no shame to fall upon him from ambush and slay him without warning, for treachery was a marked attribute of his nature. If the result of the attack was in favor of his enemy, he met the expected death without emotion, and tortures, so horri- ble as to exceed our conception, were borne by him with stolid composure and without the utterance of a groan.
In his personal habits he was exceedingly vain and very uncleanly. Water, as a means of ablution, was not necessary to his existence, and to the ever accumulating coat of dirt and grease with which his body was covered, he added another coating of paint, applied with some rude attempt at artistic effect, which, from the yellow pigment used when the Dutch first arrived, was changed to red when the material for that color could be obtained from the whites. In his domestic life the Indian was a monog- amist, unless he held the position of chief, when polygamy was common; but he was deficient in the emotion of affection, and for the slightest cause or whim left one wife and took another. Unchastity, on the part of either man or woman, was not regarded as a sin, and but little notice was taken of it. No form of marriage service is recorded as existing. The duty of an Indian woman was to plant and tend to the cultivation of the maize, the only cereal these savages seem to have grown, and to perform such other manual labor as the simplicity of the life required. The chief of a tribe possessed but slight authority. At the feasts, dances and other ceremonies that were performed he presided, and in the inter-tribal treaties and those made with the Dutch he acted as spokesman for his tribe, but at the council fire, when questions of peace and war were discussed, his influ- ence was no greater than that of any warrior present, Elevated to his position by the voice of his brethren, his tenure depended on their pleas- ure, and at their wish he surrendered his power.
The weapons of the hunt and war, possessed by these savages on the ar- rival of the whites, consisted of axes and arrows and spear heads made of flint or the bones of fishes or birds, and to a passing glance rudely fash- ioned ; if the observer will stop to think however of the means at the command of the artisan, he will find cause for wonder at the perfection reached. Other relics of their existence in this section are awls, with which they punctured the skins that they intended to sew together ; tables, on which and pestles with which they ground their corn, and bowls or basins for holding liquid. Of religious rites and ceremonies there is no mention.
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It is claimed by some writers that these savages recognized a Supreme power in a vague manner, but of this I find no proof, and equally indefi- nite is all evidence of their belief in immortality. Their dead were buried in a sitting posture, facing the east ; but nothing yet found, warrants the belief that the red man of this section, regarded that interment like his Western and Southern brother, as but a period of waiting before a resur- rection.
Such were the characteristics of the Indians when the settlement of Manhattan was begun. Upon the Dutch colonists-Swannekins, as he called them-the aborigine at first looked with the respect of awe. He saw these pale faces labor with tools made of shining metal, and huge forest trees fell at their blows. He saw those forest trees used in the con- struction of houses for shelter and a fort for refuge. He watched in be- wilderment as these new people ploughed up the earth, and in a brief period saw more soil broken and prepared for sowing than he had beheld in his lifetime. With fear and amaze he observed, that when this strange race wanted food, they obtained it, by pointing toward the chase a long tube from which issued the lightning and thunder in a cloud of smoke, and the hunted animal fell dead at the sound. Truly, beings who thus used the elements for their purposes must be more than human, and the ignorant native gave to the new comers all the reverence that superstition commands from her votaries.
Twenty years passed, after the Dutch had landed in this colony, before a white man attempted to settle in our County. Then, in 1640, Captain De Vries, sailing up the Hudson in search of a location for a colony, "arrived about even at Tappaen." Here he found, in the meadows south of the present Piermont, "an extensive valley containing upwards of 200 or 300 morgens of clay land, which is three or four feet above the water mark. 'A creek coming from the highlands runs through it containing good mill seats." This land De Vries purchased from the Indians, gave it the name of Vriesendale, and began the formation of an establishment for trade with the savages.
David Pietersen De Vries " was a bronzed, weather-bcaten sailor of the old school, without family ties, who had seen the world from many points of observation, and had been on terms of intimacy with the most cultivated men and the rudest barbarians. He was tall, muscular and hard visaged, but soft voiced as a woman, except when aroused by passion. He was quick of perception, with great power of will, and rarely ever erred in judgment." When, in 1629, the Dutch West India Companies' College of Nineteen, issued the charter by which it was intended to revive on this
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western continent the medieval condition of feudality, that cven then was receiving its death blow in the old world; De Vries associated himself with Godyn, de Laet, Blommaert and Van Rensselaer, and acquired the proprietorship of a large tract of land upon the Horekill in the present State of Delaware. Early in 1631 he sent out thirty emigrants, who founded the colony of Swaanendael-the Valley of Swans. This settle- ment had but a brief existence, for, owing to a misunderstanding with an Indian, the savages fell upon and utterly destroyed it.
In 1639, De Vries bought property on Staten Island, and accompany- ing a party of immigrants, founded a new settlement nearer New Amster- dam. A year later, as we have seen, he began the formation of the estab- lishment at Vriesendael. In his dealings with the savages, De Vries was ever honest and kind, and the natives grew to look upon him with venera- tion and to refer to him as arbitrer in their controversies with the white race. More than once, the Dutch were warned of an intended Indian out- break through his influence, and for a brief space in the horror of an Indian war, his property was spared, because he was pointed out as the good "Swannekin Chief" by a savage, whose life he had saved on the night of the massacre at Pavonia ; but even his repute could not long save Vriesen- dael, and, at the close of the Indian war of 1643, he sailed for Europe ruined and disgusted, bidding the author of his troubles, Kieft, farewell with the bitter words: "Vengeance for innocent blood will sooner or later fall on your head."
The two decades from 1620 to 1640 were pregnant with momentous events for the New Netherlands. Those amicable relations, that existed between the Indians and Dutch on their arrival, had been strained to their utmost tension by causes almost entirely due to the lax rule of the Gover- nors. The privilege of free trade in the colony, granted by the West India Company in 1638, had been eagerly grasped and used with avidity. Every individual might, and most of them did, deal with the aborigines on his own account; and to win his way into their good graces more deeply than his neighbor, each trader resorted to methods, which, however customary among civilized people, produced the most direful results in the case of these barbarians. The dusky warrior was invited into his house, was bidden to the table, was given the best of his viands and liquors and was greeted on terms of equality. These concessions, which were granted in all the settlements of the colony, were exceeded by the traders of Fort Orange. Soon they learned, that the Indians' desire for guns and ammu- nition was greater than for any other object; and unprincipled at the best, with little care for the future, and no wish, save that of accumulating wealth
5
in a short time, these traders in the north bartered freely and for excellent prices with these weapons.
While these conditions were accruing throughout the province, other events took place which hastened the inevitable result. Long immunity from attack had rendered the colonists overbold, and they bought land, built homes, and began the cultivation of the soil further and further from the protecting guns of the fort on Manhattan Island. Their cattle, un- guarded by a herdsman, too often entered the Indians' maize fields, which were unfenced, and utterly destroyed them. And, as if to tempt fate to its utmost, they employed the red men as domestics, associated with them in close relationship and betrayed to thein, in the familiarity of social in- tercourse, their weakness and their fears.
The result was what might have been anticipated. Attentions, shown to the savage in the interests of trade, he grew to expect and was pro- voked when they were not forthcoming. The trespass upon and damage to his corn fields by the white man's cattle angered him, and he revenged himself by killing the domestic animals, whenever he had an opportunity, with an indiscrimination that belonged to his nature. As servants, the Indians were not only useless because of their resistance to all restraint, but also because their cupidity being aroused by the sight of objects they valued, they unhesitatingly stole them and fled away to their native wilds. To these petty causes of irritation between the two races, were added oth- ers of graver import. The Mohawks, now well armed and supplied with ammunition, not only ceased to be tributary vassals to the tribes living along the lower reaches of the river, but, by reason of their superior armament, compelled those tribes to contribute to them ; and, when these lower river Indians sought to obtain equal weapons of defence against their now powerful neighbors, and were refused by the settlers, who were con- trolled by a law of New Amsterdam, which made the trading of guns with- in its jurisdiction a capital offence ; they regarded the refusal as born of cowardice. A relationship so filled with mutual distrust and dislike could not long exist without open rupture, and this rupture was precipitated by an attempt on the part of the Director of the colony-William Kieft-to impose a tribute of maize, wampum and furs upon the tribes residing near New Amsterdam.
The first outbreak of open war occurred with the wily Raritans, who had been exasperated by an expedition of the Dutch sent against them in 1640. Early in the spring of 1641, these savages fell upon De Vries' Staten Island settlement and destroyed it. Later in the season a West- chester Indian murdered a settler, and though, under the terror of punish-
6
ment his tribe promised to yield him to justice, it was not done. Shortly after a Hackinsack murdered an innocent man who was thatching a house, and his tribe, while offering to indemnify the Director with wampum, steadfastly refused to surrender the murderer.
While matters were in this condition, the Mohawks suddenly fell upon the lower river tribes, slew many of them, took more captive, and drove the remainder to seek protection from the Dutch. For a fortnight these fugitives were cared for by the colonists; then, regaining courage, they returned to their desolated villages. But the relief was only temporary and in a short time, being scized with a fresh panic, whole tribes deserted their homes and fled to Pavonia, to New Amsterdam, to Vriesendael. In this exodus were the Haverstraw, Tappan, and Hackinsack, together with the tribes of Westchester.
About Vriesendael the refugees collected in such numbers, that De Vries became alarmed for the safety of his goods, and, entering a canoe, he paddled down to New Amsterdam to ask that a guard might be sent to his settlement from the fort. His arrival was opportune. Then for the first time he learned that the Director had determined to attack the trust- ing red men, who had sought the protection and hospitality of the Dutch. In vain De Vries pleaded for a calmer consideration of the idea; in vain he pointed out the frightful horrors of an Indian war; in vain, as President of the Directors' Council, he insisted that the great majority of both coun- cil and people were opposed to the proposed attack. Kieft answered that he had determined " to make these savages wipe their chops," and that he would not be deterred from his purpose. On the night of February 27, 1643, the soldiers fell upon the unsuspecting Indians camped at Pavonia and Corlaer's Hook, and at the former place eighty, and at the latter forty of the savages were killed before the murder ended. " And this was the feat worthy of the heroes of old Rome !" cried De Vries in the awful bitter- ness of his contempt, " to massacre a parcel of Indians in their sleep, to take the children from the breasts of their mothers, and to butcher them in the presence of their parents, and throw their mangled limbs into the fire or water ! Some were thrown into the river, and when the parents rushed in to save them, the soldiers prevented their landing and let the parents and children drown." In the morning, the valiant warriors came back to the fort wearied by their labor of murder, and were hailed as heroes by Kieft in his rapture. In the morning, after the enemy had left, the terrified Indians who had escaped, stole cautiously forth from their place of hiding; viewed the charred, distorted, mangled corpses of their tribes; and swore revenge.
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