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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01145 0563
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GENEALOGY 974.701 UL7℃
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ALPHONSO T. CLEARWATER
THE
HISTORY OF
ULSTER
COUNTY
NEW YORK
EDITED BY ALPHONSO T. CLEARWATER, LL.D.
MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY; OF THE ULSTER HIS- TORICAL SOCIETY; OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NEWBURGH BAY AND THE HIGHLANDS; OF THE MINNISINK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ETC.
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974.701
UlIc
PUBLISHED BY W. J. VAN DEUSEN KINGSTON, NEW YORK 1907
THE BERKELEY PRESS 218 WILLIAM STREET NEW YORK
INTRODUCTION
1146130
BY THE EDITOR
No County in the State has annals of more striking interest than Ulster. Second only to New York and Albany in antiquity Ulster from the earliest period was the theatre of important and romantic events. Traversed by the great Indian trails which formed the aboriginal highways between the Hudson, the Delaware and the Susque- hanna, the strategic importance of its situation was known for centuries to the red men and from their first acquaintance with it acknowledged by the whites. Upon its soil the first constitution of the State was framed, the first constitutional Governor was inaugurated and the first Grand Jury under the constitution empaneled by the State's first Chief Justice. Its history never has been adequately written because an exhaustive work would fill many royal octavo volumes, and never can be prepared or pub- lished without governmental aid. The Republic is too young for Amer- icans to regard local history with the veneration accorded it in older lands. Our people look forward, not backward, and so little are they interested in the lives and achievements of their ancestors that they are reluctant to contribute to governmental expenditure the sole object of which is to preserve the account of them.
Nearly twenty-seven years have passed since the publication of Judge Sylvester's History of the County. Since that time Marius Schoon- maker's History of Kingston, Benjamin M. Brink's History of Saugerties. Ralph LeFevre's History of New Paltz, Dr. Van Santvoord's History of the One Hundred and Twentieth Regiment, General Gates's History of The Ulster Guard in the War of the Rebellion, a Commemorative Bio- graphical Record of the Men of the County, the Records of the First Dutch Church of Kingston, by the Reverend Roswell Randall Hoes, the Records of the Huguenot Church of New Paltz, Dr. Anjou's Probate
Brake & #35.00
Southern
6
INTRODUCTION.
Records and Mr. Brink's Olde Ulster have been published, and the early Dutch Records of the County have been translated into English under the supervision of the editor of this work by Mr. Dingman Veersteg, the official translator of the Holland Society. All of these are invaluable con- tributions to the early history of Ulster, but many generations will pass before a complete and authoritative history of the County will appear. It follows that this modest work makes no pretense to that rank. It is a collation of data by a staff of contributors consisting of the most accurate and brilliant writers in their respective fields in the County, who here crystallize and preserve the material they have gathered from many sources. Never so far as I am aware, has any local history in any county been prepared as this has been. Each writer is in a position to speak with absolute authority upon the subject of which he treats, and it was the in- tention of the editor that each should present in the most attractive and concise form such material relative to the matter of which he writes as had not appeared in previous publications. How far that hope has been realized the gentle and critical reader will judge. It is the habit of many to deride those biographical sketches without which it is impossible to publish any local history. For the future historian the sketches of the men whose names appear in this volume will be of great value. Some of their contemporaries will read them in that censorious spirit which al- ways finds satiric expression when others are spoken of. It has been the aim of the editor to limit the sketches to a statement of such facts as will be of interest to the reader of to-day and of importance to those of the years to come. That the work contains many errors is inevitable. The orthography of proper names will be, as always it has been, a source of criticism, but to those familiar with the subject the changes in spelling in the course of centuries is an interesting study. In extracts from an- cient documents and official records the spelling there found usually has been retained. No attempt has been made to give uniformity to names as that is an impossible and thankless task. Everyone knows that different families known to be descended from a common ancestry, frequently in-
7
INTRODUCTION.
sist on a different mode of spelling. There are for instance seventeen different methods of spelling the name of the editor of this work, and thirty-two different ways of spelling the much simpler name of one of his , ancestors, Deyo.
The greater part of the material of this volume appears in print for the first time. There are two omissions. No account of Methodism or of the Baptist Faith appears. To none will this be a matter of greater regret than it is to the editor of this work. The most prominent Methodist and Baptist Clergymen in the County agreed that they would write for the work an historical account of their respective denominations, and the matter was entrusted to them. Both re-considered their promise, and in consequence the great branches of the Christian Church they so admirably adorn fail of representation here.
If my colleagues and myself have helped to perpetuate the memory of the heroism, the fortitude, the sufferings and the achievements of the men and women who placed Ulster in the foremost rank of the Counties of America, we shall be content.
Kingston, February 22, 1907.
A. T. CLEARWATER.
CONTENTS
PART I.
CHAPTER I .- XIV. PAGE
The County of Ulster By E. M. Ruttenber 17
CHAPTER XV.
The City of Kingston
By Howard Hendricks
204
CHAPTER XVI.
The Town of Denning
By Charles E. Foote
242
CHAPTER XVII.
The Town of Esopus
By Charles E. Foote.
246
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Town of Gardiner
By Charles E. Foote.
253
CHAPTER XIX.
The Town of Hardenburgh.
. By Howard Hendricks
258
CHAPTER XX.
The Town of Hurley
By Charles E. Foote
262
CHAPTER XXI.
The Town of Lloyd.
. By John H. Coe.
268
CHAPTER XXII.
The Town of Marbletown
. By Clarence T. Frame
275
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Town of Marlborough By Hon. C. Meech Woolsey ... . 287
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Town of New Paltz . By Hon. John N. Vanderlyn. 306
CHAPTER XXV.
The Town of Olive.
By De Witt C. Davis.
324
9
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXVI.
PAGE
The Town of Plattekill By De Witt W. Ostrander ....... 332
CHAPTER XXVII.
The Town of Rochester By Charles E. Foote 343
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Town of Rosendale By Charles E. Foote ... .... 354
CHAPTER XXIX.
The Town of Saugerties By Charles E. Foote 360
CHAPTER XXX.
The Town of Shandaken.
By Henry Griffeth
366
CHAPTER XXXI.
The Town of Shawangunk.
By Charles E. Foote
373
CHAPTER XXXII.
The Town of Ulster By Charles E. Foote 380
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The Town of Wawarsing By Hon. Thomas E. Benedict .. .... . 384
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Town of Woodstock By Howard Hendricks ..... . 403
CHAPTER XXXV.
The Reformed Protestant Dutch Church
409 By Rev. John Garnsey Van Slyke, D.D.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
The Roman Catholic Church. By Monsignor, the Very Reverend Richard Lalor Burtsell, D.D ..... 416
CHAPTER XXXVII.
The Presbyterian Church. By Rev. Charles G. Ellis, D.D ....... 459
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
The Episcopal Church. By Rev. Charles Mercer Hall, M.A .. 465 CHAPTER XXXIX.
The Lutheran Church. By Rev. Chester H. Traver, D.D ..... 472
IO
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XL.
PAGE
The Society of Friends By De Witt Ostrander. 477
CHAPTER XLI.
The Bench and Bar By Hon. John J. Linson 481
CHAPTER XLII.
The Medical Profession
By Henry Van Hoevenberg, M.D .... 491
CHAPTER XLIII.
The Newspapers of Ulster
By Jay E. Klock.
.
504
CHAPTER XLIV.
The Masonic Fraternity By John E. Kraft 512
CHAPTER XLV.
The Schools of the County By Professor S. R. Shear. 517
CHAPTER XLVI.
The Shipping of Twaalfskill By Henry H. Pitts 536
CHAPTER XLVII.
Bluestone By Charles E. Foote 541
PART II.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 545
Elle. Kuttember
11
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER
By E. M. RUTTENBER
CHAPTER I
LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.
T HE County of Ulster, in the State of New York, is located on the west bank of Hudson's River along which it extends for a dis- tance of forty miles, beginning about sixty-two miles north from New York City. Its County Seat, the City of Kingston, its largest and most populous town, is in longitude 74 degrees west from Greenwich, and latitude 41 degrees 55 minutes north. It is one of the original, or "Mother Counties" of the State, and has, at different times, had portions of its territory taken for the creation of new counties required for the more convenient transaction of official business in outlying districts.
Situated to a considerable extent between the Catskill Mountains on the northwest, the Shawangunk Mountains on the southwest and the Highlands on the south, the county viewed from a commanding ele- vation presents the appearance of a great basin, with mountains and high hills on nearly every side, with the lower portion cut up into smaller sloping hills and gently undulating lowlands, through the valleys of which streams and streamlets take their way.
In the northern part of the county extending from northeast to southwest, is one of the main ranges of the Catskill Mountains, the most southerly of that system. Their lofty peaks, lifting their majestic heads high in air, present an aspect of grandeur rarely equalled. In some places the ascent of the mountain sides is easy and gradual, while in others it is rocky and broken and steep, and covered with boulders; in still other places sheer cliffs, impossible of ascent, a thousand to two thousand feet in height. In these mountains arise innumerable streams,
I8
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
some of which rush down the steep sides, and some through the beds of ravines hundreds of feet deep, having almost vertical sides. These ravines are locally called "cloves," as though, through some mighty convulsion of nature, the "huge mountain had been cloven asunder, as by the Almighty stroke of an Eternal sword."
About the same formation is found in the Shawangunk Mountains. These mountains extend from northeast to southwest in the south- western part of the county, and are the most northerly range of the Alleghanys. These are not quite so high as the Catskills, but are of the same general formation. On the northwest and merging in the Catskill range or Blue Hills, so called from the reflected color of the rocks, which stand at the head of the Esopus Valley and spread over Sullivan County.
The Shawangunk range takes that name from a particular place in the present town of Shawangunk, from which it was extended to the hills * which were otherwise known of record as the High Hills, and the Steep Rocks. The highest elevation in the range is known as High Point, in New Jersey, better known in some connections as Hawk's Nest. The second in elevation is known as Sam's Point, in the present town of Wawarsing, about seven miles south of the Village of Ellenville. It takes its familiar name from Samuel Gonsaulus, an early settler and owner. Gertruyd's Nose, so called from the fancied resemblance of the shadows of some of the massive rocks that stand on its brow to the nose of the wife of Jacobus Bruin who held the ownership of the patent, and who was succeeded in that relation by his widow, Gentruyd Bruin. North, the third highest elevation is now called Mohonk-historically, Moggonck, or Paltz Point. The elevation is divided from Gertruyd's Nose by what is known as The Traps, a pass or clove some six hundred and fifty feet wide, extending through the range and presenting the appearance of the hill having slipped apart. The name was primarily given on the pre- sumption that the rocks on either side of the pass were Trapean, which, however, is not the fact. The pass is the purely natural result of a fault in the rocks from which the softer material was washed away leaving rugged clear-cut banks, which invite not only geological study, but the study of chronology. The three surviving Indian names that may be regarded
* The name is of record first in a deed to Governor Dongan in 1684, as that of a certain piece or tract, which was later conveyed by patent to Thomas Lloyd. It was never spoken as the name of the mountain or of the Indian fort until later. It means "at or on the hillside," and aptly described Lloyd's land in part. It adjoined Col. Rutsen's tract called Nescotack, later Guilford.
19
LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.
as names of particular elevations are Aioskawasting, Pitkiskaker, and Moggonck. It may be stated here that the Indians had no names for" continuous ranges; where there were hills grouped they said Adchué- Kontu, "Where there are many hills," or plenty of hills.
About three-quarters of a mile west of Sam's Point is supposed to be, but is not, the original historic pond referred to in early land papers as Maretange. The name is English, not Indian, as some suppose. It means simply a pond the water of which is sour or offensive to the taste. The water of the pond or lake is in evidence that the name never belonged to it. About one mile north of Sam's Point lies what was called in local records The Great Salt Pond, so called it is said from the effervescent salt which was found on the rocks which formed "Deer Licks." The pond is now called Lake Minniewaska. Still further north lies what is now known as Lake Mohunk, on the historic elevation called Moggonck above noted. Beyond Moggonck is the clove or cleft which bears the Indian name of Tawarataque, now fancifully written Tower-a-tauch. The elevation known as the Sandberg, or Zand-berg, is the boundmark of the great Minnisink and the Hardenburgh patents. With the exception of Maretange the lakes named now form attractive features of summer resorts. In the town of Gardiner are the famed Verkeerde Falls, a cataract of about seventy feet, now called Awosting Falls.
On the west side of the Shawangunk range the rocks are precipitous; on the east side in many large districts the land has the appearance of having been shaved off and the rocks pulverized as by the slipping of an iceberg during the Ice Age, and the valley of the Wallkill, near the base of the range, bears the evidence of the path through which the bergs passed to the ocean. These hillsides are generally very fertile, particularly in grasses, from which the ancient milk and butter of this and original southern Ulster was famous. As a basin for the wash of the hills on its three borders its three valleys, the Esopus, the Groot Esopus and the Wallkill, had primarily no equal in the province for production.
Probably no locality within the whole Appalachian system of moun- tains presents more interesting phases than Ulster County, from a geological standpoint. The rocks are those of the very earliest periods, those of the newer era being unknown. There are no indications of the carboniferous period; the highest points in the county show on their
20
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
tops the white pebbly conglomerate which, in some other parts of the Appalachian system, underlie the coal deposits. It almost seems as though this particular section was subjected to greater upheaval than some others during the cataclysms by which the surface was buckled into mountains, and, the tops of those of this locality, being higher than those surrounding, became the "snag" on which great glaciers stuck, which ground the mountains into valleys which, on the subsidence of the waters, were left filled with the alluvium of the erosion. The break in the con- tinuity of the mountain ranges, as well as the rock formations, which underlie the soils of the valleys, and the scratched and broken sides of some of the mountains, give standing, if not actual value to this view.
The more ancient rocks in Ulster County belong to the Silurian and Devonian periods of the Palaeozoic era, and are covered deep with drift and alluvium. They lie in their respective series, and extend across the county from the southeast to the northwest. The oldest lie in the town of Marlborough.
The limestone is highly magnesian, and probably belongs to the Cal- ciferous or Primordial epoch of the Silurian age. Some of its layers make cement.
The slates of the Hudson River period of the lower Silurian age underlie the towns of Lloyd, Plattekill, Shawangunk, Gardiner and New Paltz, except that the lower rocks of the Niagara period of the upper Silurian age are found along the northwestern borders of Shawangunk, Gardiner and New Paltz, while in the northwestern part of Esopus are found some of the upper strata of the Niagara period, and the lower strata of the Helderberg period of the upper Silurian. The slates have been in demand for many years for sidewalk, hearth and flooring pur- poses, and the sandstones are extensively quarried for buildings, and other commercial uses.
Along the northwest portion of Shawangunk, Gardiner and New Paltz, overlying the slates, is what is locally known as the "Shawangunk grits," but is properly the Oneida conglomerate. It has been extensively used for millstones since very early days, being fully equal, it is said, to the best imported stones. They are called the Esopus Millstones, but the principal production has been in the Town of Rochester.
"The Ellenville lead mines," says Hon. James G. Lindsley, of Rondout, who prepared a most able article on the subject about a quarter of a
21
LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.
century ago, "belong to this formation, and there are other like deposits of ore. The overlying Medina sandstone is not found in many places, but there are points about High Falls, in the town of Marbletown, where it shows considerable thickness."
"Rocks representing the Niagara epoch are those coralline limestones lying above and below the stone known as dark cement stone, and of which it also constitutes a part. They lie above and conformably to the Medina and Clinton as far east as the town of Rosendale, through the southeasterly portions of the towns of Wawarsing, Rochester and Marbletown; but to the north and east of this, through the town of Ulster, City of Kingston, and town of Saugerties, they lie upon and conformably to the Hudson River slates."
There are immense quarries of these rocks, which are used for the manufacture of cement, a prominent industry in the towns of Marble- town, Rosendale and at Rondout, in the City of Kingston.
"Above these Niagara rocks, and conforming to them, are the water limestones of the lower Helderberg." "These water limestones, known as light cement, also form an important part of the material in the manu- facture of cement, being added in due proportion to the dark cement of the Niagara."
"Rising above the water-line, we find nearly or quite all of the series of the lower Helderberg running the whole length of the County, the first being the Tentaculite, which is a fine building stone. It is crowned by rocks known as the Stromatopora limestone, - a very coarse stratum of corals and sponges."
"Above this comes the lower Pentamerous limestone, a heavy blue limestone." "Then we have the Catskill or shaly limestone, the encrinial limestone, and the upper Pentamerous limestone." "This latter contains a layer of fossiliferous limestone excellent for making lime and fluxing iron." "This series of rocks of the lower Helderberg can be recognized at almost all the points where cement stone is quarried, but notably at the Vleight Bergh at Rondout, the Fly Mountain, at Eddyville, and the Yoppen Bergh in Rosendale." "The later rocks of the Silurian age, known as the Oriskany sandstone, has few exposures, though it may be seen in places between Rondout and Wilbur along the bank of the Rondout kill, at Glen Erie, and at points in the town of Rosendale."
"The rocks of the Devonian age all lie to the southwest of those just
22
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
described, and the lower series of them extend through the towns of Wawarsing, Rochester, Marbletown, Hurley, Kingston (City and town), Ulster and Saugerties. The first of them is known as the Canda Galla grit. It is a rather soft shale and where exposed crumbles by action of the weather. It is generally called slatestone, but it is not true slate." The high ridge above Rondout and extending northward to Saugerties, is of this formation, which also underlies most of the old Lucas Turn- pike which extends southwest from Kingston.
"The Carniferous limestones, lying above these grits, are a marked feature of the county, extending as they do, through its entire length and often much exposed." These have been extensively quarried for construction purposes where great solidity is required. Many of the lock stones of the canal, and much of the heavy foundations of the Brook- lyn bridge are of this stone, as are also many of the fine historic man- sions along the Esopus Creek road.
"The Marcellus shale rises in a bluff along the left bank of Esopus Creek, in its northwest course through Marbletown, Hurley, Ulster and Saugerties. The lower layers are soft and friable.
"The Hamilton beds lying above the Marcellus shale, is the forma- tion from which the product known as bluestone is obtained." "Quar- ries of this stone are found in the towns of Hurley, Kingston, Ulster, Saugerties, Woodstock, Shandaken, Olive, Marbletown, Rochester and Wawarsing." It also exists in Denning and Hardenburgh.
"It is now conceded that the higher layers of the mountains belong to the Chemung Period, with traces of the subcarniferous on some of the loftiest peaks."
"Coming down to the later deposits belonging to the Quaternary age, we find in this county long stretches of alluvial beds bordering the streams which flow beside or make their course through it. The high banks along the Hudson and the Esopus, like that upon which the older part of Kingston is built, are fair representatives of the higher benches, while the fertile intervales which border the Wallkill, the Rondout and the Esopus are as fine specimens as can be met with anywhere of the lower terraces of this formation; while all the hillsides are covered with the drift of the glacial period, and there are many evidences of the action of the glaciers abounding in the erosion and scratching of the
WTBather NY
Alton P. Pou len
23
LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.
surface of the rocks where the drift has protected them from the effects of the atmosphere."
Ralph S. Tarr, Professor of Geology at Cornell University, pub- lished a work in 1902 in which he states that the Catskills are not true mountain ranges, but are pseudo or imitation mountains. His account of their formation is interesting and is here reproduced in part :
"During the Devonian Period, just before the uplift of the great interior Paleozoic Sea which accompanied the development of the Appal- achians, the site of the Catskills was the shore line of a sea-bottom that was gradually sinking. The land side of the shore was occupied by the Taconic Mountains from which sediment entered the sea, where it was strewn over the bottom in the region where the Catskill Mountains now rise. Here, near the coast, coarse beds of sandstone and conglomerate were accumulated, while further west shales and sandy shales were being deposited. The sinking of the sea-bottom permitted these beds to gather to great depth. Then, when the reverse process of elevation had commenced, the sea-bottom was raised to dry land, and eventually uplifted to the condition of a plateau. Possibly the uplift in the Catskill region was greater than in Central New York, although of this there is no direct proof. But in both places the elevation was accompanied by very little disturbance of the strata, so that in the two parts of the state the upper Paleozoic beds are still nearly horizontal." * * * "In the Catskill Mountains the topography is much more rugged and more mountainous than elsewhere. Denudation, operating upon hard rocks of . nearly horizontal position, has carved out a complex of peaks, which, because of the superior hardness of their rocks, rise higher than the rest of the plateau."
The principal streams of the county, those whose function it is to perform the office of the leaders in the drainage arrangement, are three in number. They are the Esopus, the Rondout and the Wallkill. Of these the most important is the Esopus. It rises in the extreme northwestern corner of the county, and takes a southeasterly course until it reaches a point near the center of the town of Marbletown, not more than 12 miles from the Hudson; then it turns in an abrupt elbow and flows northward, bearing a trifle easterly, and discharges its waters into the Hudson at Saugerties. The stream is more than sixty miles in length.
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