USA > New York > Dutchess County > Dutchess county > Part 10
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During Revolutionary times the Homestead was occupied by Maj. Henry Schenck, who in 1763 had married Hannah, daughter of Francis Brett and granddaughter of Madam Brett. As Quartermaster in Washington's Army, he stored military supplies here. The Homestead was then famed for its hospitality and was a frequent resort of Army officers. Washington, La- fayette, Von Steuben, Abraham Yates, and other distinguished patriots were guests.
The name Teller Homestead was applied to the house as a result of the marriage of Alice Schenck, second daughter of Maj. Henry Schenck, to Isaac dePeyster Teller in 1790. The latter purchased the property in 1800 in the settlement of the estate of Major Schenck, who died in 1799. One of Teller's daughters, Margaret Schenck Teller, who married Rev. Dr. Robert Boyd Van Kleeck, inherited the Homestead, which upon her death in 1888 passed on to their daughter, Agnes Boyd Crary, wife of Rev. Dr. Robert Fulton Crary, oldest grandson of Robert Fulton. It is now held in her estate. The present occupants are the seventh generation in direct line to own and occupy the Homestead.
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R. from Van Nydeck St. on Teller Ave., which becomes Fishkill Ave .; L. on Verplanck Ave.
24. MATTEAWAN STATE HOSPITAL (R), Verplanck Ave. and Canon St., (admission 1-4 weekdays only) is devoted to the incarceration and treatment of the criminal insane. The buildings, which are on a reserva- tion of about 900 acres, reflect several periods of construction in their varied but harmonious architecture. All are of red brick with many barred windows. The main unit is in the state institutional, pseudo-Romanesque style. An- other unit has red tiled roofs; and another has small, white-trimmed windows and a gray slate roof of low gable. The officers' residence unit suggests Elizabethan architecture with half-timbering and leaded windows. A farm colony and various service buildings complete the plant.
The hospital contains 1,348 patients (Aug., 1936). Completion of the building under construction will increase the capacity to 1,421. The number of patients has been increasing at the rate of 30 to 40 annually.
Before the State acquired the property, it was the home and training ground of the famous John J. Scanlon trotting horses, winners and record holders of Hambletonian races. The Abbott (2:0314) and Kentucky Union (2:0714) are buried beside the road. just back of the present fence. The pyramid which marked their graves has been removed.
L. from Verplanck Ave., on North Ave.
25. The SOUTHERN DUTCHESS COUNTRY CLUB (R), fac- ing Verplanck Ave., has for its nucleus an old Dutch building; date of erection is unknown. It is a low built, plain stone dwelling with a wide sweep of roof and thick walls. Early in the 19th century, it was slightly remodeled by John Peter DeWindt (see Point of Interest No. 3) for the use of his son, and was called "Stone Cot."
At this point is a stretch of sandy beach, rare along the river. This is a small popular bathing place. Benches and tables are provided for picnic parties.
Straight on North Ave. to Bank Square.
Additional Points of Interest
26. EUSTATIA, on Monell Place, is the Monell-Van Houten House, an Elizabethan-American country home built in 1867 by Andrew Jackson Downing, the landscape artist and horticulturalist who was lost in the Henry Clay steamboat disaster. This was Downing's first practical example of his conception of an American country home. Downing's widow, who was a daughter of John Peter DeWindt, married Judge John Monell.
A short distance S. of Eustatia stood the DeWindt house. DeWindt, who was called "the Firebrand," was a West India trader, prominent in Hudson River commerce, and helped to develop Fishkill Landing as a port. Under his patronage, James Mackin, a poor boy, rose later to be Senator and State Treasurer. Mackin's wife, nee Countess Sally Britton Spottiswood, known as the "Belle of St. Louis," was an authoress and philanthropist. On
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the DeWindt grounds lived Clarence Cooke, an art critic of the last century. His studio, Copy Cotte, is now in ruins.
27. The BOGARDUS-DEWINDT-VAN HOUTEN HOUSE, 16 Tompkins Ave., is a picturesqne dwelling, almost hidden from view by lilac bushes. Erected before 1800, it was first the home of Peter Bogardus, a local merchant, was acquired by John Peter DeWindt about 1825 and occupied by his widow; and was later purchased by the Van Wagenen family. It is a good example of the story-and-a-half frame Dutch homestead of Revolutionary times. The house has interesting details of window frames, original trim, and original fireplaces. Except for the addition of a wing and dormers and the removal of a Dutch oven, it is little changed.
28. The KNEVELS-STEARNS HOUSE (Sunny Fields), 75 Knevels Ave., erected in 1835, is a weathered shingle house of frame construction with plain gabled roof. Gertrude Knevels, a modern novelist, lived here early in the 20th century. According to tradition, the ghost of an Indian chief, stalking from the trees under which he used to live, frequently visits the grounds.
29. DENNINGS POINT was early known as "the island" in Fish- kill Bay. It was in possession of Peter DuBois under a life lease from Madam Brett. Later, when the DePeysters came into possession, it was called DePeyster's Point. The Verplancks owned it for a time. William Allen, a grandson of William Allen, founder of Allentown, Pa., built a mansion here about 1814. Only the walls remain, on the high ground at the . center of the point. This house contained an octagonal room, an eccentric form of architecture fashionable in that era. William Allen and his wife, according to tradition, lived here in such a lavish scale of elegance and hospitality that they became financially embarrassed. At the end of nine years they were obliged to sell the estate to the Dennings, who built a cause- way to the mainland and called the promontory Presqu' Ile (almost an island). Denning's famous cider mill, a large brick structure, still stands on the inner shore. Nearby is a fisherman's cottage; and huge reels for shad nets are spread on the stony beach where the shoals stretch out into the little bay between the point and the mouth of Fishkill Creek. Washington was in the habit of landing on this promontory after crossing from his head- quarters at Newburgh. Under large oaks on the river shore he found an orderly waiting with his horse and rode to the highway leading to New England.
The DENNINGS POINT BRICK WORKS, at the foot of Dennings Ave., on the "neck" of the point, is one of the more complete and up-to- date of the electrical machine-operated yards in America. This concern began making the widely known Hudson River common brick here in 1880. Nearby are sites of pioneer brickyards.
30. The HOWLAND LIBRARY, 477 Main St., was established in 1872. The brick building of the Norwegian chalet type was built from plans brought to this country by General Howland. There are 15,000 volumes available to the public.
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31. The SURVEYOR'S OFFICE, 181 Main St., is probably the oldest surveyor's office in continuous operation. It contains a file of old deeds and maps, including local charts drawn by Simeon DeWitt, official geographer of the Revolution.
Points of Interest in Environs
32. The CASINO, at the head of the Incline Railway (See Point of Interest No. 16), besides being famous as a resort, is noted for the view it commands. Under the flank of the 1,200-ft .- high mountain spur, the course of the Fishkill can be traced to the bay. Southwest, the vista extends to the north portal of the Hudson Highlands. To the west are Cornwall Bay, Sleeping Indian Mountain, and the terraced city of Newburgh, backed by Snake Hill. A blue barrier on the far horizon, the Shawangunk range forms a curtain in the west. The 4,000-ft. crests of the Catskills loom in the north- west.
Rising still higher above the Casino is the crest of MOUNT BEACON (1,500 alt.), reached by a foot trail, 1 m. This peak has gone by the names of Solomon's Bergh, Beacon Hill, North Beacon, and Old Beacon. The name "Beacon" dates back to 1777 when signal fires were lighted on the moun- tain as a means of communication with military outposts in Connecticut, Westchester, and Sandy Hook. The city has borrowed the name of the mountain. The summit duplicates the view obtainable at the Casino.
From Mount Beacon a trail extends to SOUTH BEACON PEAK (1,635 alt.), 1 m., the highest in the Highlands of the Hudson. It is called South Beacon Hill by the United States Geological Survey, and was named New Beacon or Grand Sachem in Hayward's Gazetteer of 1853. Hayward writes: "The river is visible from West Point to Tappan Bay on the south, and for an extent of 50 miles on the north. The surrounding rich and highly culti- vated country, dotted with villages, and wanting in nothing that renders so extensive a landscape lovely, lies as a picture before the observer." From the fire tower which rises 75 ft. above the summit, the skyscrapers of Manhat- tan are visible on exceptionally clear days. The Empire State Building can be seen with the naked eye, but binoculars are necessary to bring out the New York outer and inner harbors.
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VILLAGE of FISHKILL
NEW YORK
SCALE
FEET
500
250
0
500
LINE
-
1
1
ACADEMY
VILLAGE
-
MAIN
N
JACKSON
STREET
ROBINSON 0
0
FISHKILL LANDING 1700
BEDFORD
1
AVENUE
MAIN
1
WESTON-
AVENUE
CZ
CAREY
LUYSTER
1
AVENUE
PLACE
BEACON
FISHKILL
AIRPORT
VILLAGE
1
/
1
1
1
STREE.
C
ROAD
BROAD
FISHKILL VILLAGE
Railroad Stations: New York, New Haven & Hartford R. R. (freight only).
Busses: Beacon-Fishkill Bus Line, New York-Montreal Bus Line, Mohawk Bus Line. Taxis : To Beacon, one to four passengers, $1; each additional passenger, 25c.
Accommodations : Union Hotel (E) ; Ye Olde Fishkill Inne (A and E) ; Elm Lodge (A and E) ; Old Post Road Inn (A and E).
Recreation: Hiking trails over nearby mountains. Swimming in Fishkill and Clove Creeks (stocked with fish). Skiing at Norway Ski Jump and on trails over the moun- tains.
Annual events: Middle Atlantic Ski-Jumping Tournament, winter, when condition of snow permits.
FISHKILL VILLAGE (200 alt., 553 pop.) is a residential community at the junction of US 9 and State 52, 4.5 miles east of Beacon, 13.5 miles south of Poughkeepsie. Sheltered by the sturdy Fishkill mountain range, this secluded little village still pursues serenely the placid life of its Dutch pioneers. Main Street, most important of the village thoroughfares, is broad and gracious, arched by great elm trees. To the east and west of the re- stricted business section, stand fine old dwellings and historic churches. Neat white houses, some with Dutch doorways opening upon the street, lend an atmosphere of neighborliness suggestive of an earlier day. Several more spacious mansions are set in deep lawns bordered by old fashioned gardens and white picket fences. Among these relics of the past there are few tokens of today's world and never an intimation of tomorrow's.
Fishkill was settled by the Dutch a few years after the granting of the Rombout Patent in 1685. English colonists from Ulster County across the river had seen the low, swampy land of the Fishkill valley and had scornfully rejected it as worthless; but the Dutch, accustomed to the low- lands of their native country, were undaunted. Gradually they moved in, cleared the wilderness, drained the swamps, and built their homes. To the stream which flows through the valley they gave the name Vis Kil (Dutch, fish creek), which, in its Anglicized form, Fishkill, was applied in time to the village, the township, and the nearby mountains.
The first to occupy the land now comprised within the village limits were Johannes Ter Boss and Henry Rosecrance, whose names appear in a list of freeholders of Dutchess County prepared in 1740. Ter Boss was an eccentric man. When a controversy arose in the Dutch church, Ter Boss transferred to the Presbyterian church at Brinckerhoffville, to which he took his Negroes one Sabbath and sat among them, to the consternation of the congregation.
The village probably owes its existence to the fact that here in 1731 the settlers built their first church, in which on alternate Sabbath mornings the people gathered for worship, many coming from as far as Hopewell and New Hackensack. De Chastellux, the French traveler, who visited
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Dutchess County 45 years later, found in Fishkill only one Dutch and one English church, 12 to 14 dwellings, an inn, and a schoolhouse. Nevertheless, he rated Fishkill as the only village in the county, outside of Poughkeepsie, deserving mention.
This was Fishkill at the outbreak of the Revolution: in that struggle the little village played an important part. It lay on the only practical military route through the Highlands of the Hudson, as well as upon the most direct route from the mid-Hudson valley to New England; it was readily accessible to the river and to West Point; and it was the center of a highly productive agricultural area capable of provisioning an army.
It was early anticipated that the British forces in New York would attempt to establish direct communication with Quebec through the Hudson- Champlain valleys and thereby isolate New England from the other rebellious Colonies. Their path would lie through Wiccopee Pass, the narrow defile immediately south of the village, which might easily be held by a small army against a much larger attacking force. Quick to recognize its strategic import- ance, Washington had the pass fortified ; three batteries of artillery were sta- tioned there in 1776 and redoubts were built. On the plain to the east- ward of Fishkill, and across the creek, barracks were erected for the quarter- ing of troops, while Washington and his aides were quartered in and about the village in homes, some of which still stand. Storehouses were built for military supplies, and Fishkill became the military base and supply depot for Dutchess County, and headquarters for a year of the State clothing stores. On the good-hearted Dutch wives devolved the self-imposed task of making additional clothes for the poorly clad soldiers and preparing supplies for the military hospital.
The Dutch Church was converted into a prison in which Tories, deserters, and British prisoners were confined. The English Church became the Army hospital, in which victims of smallpox, then raging in the ranks, and men wounded in the battle of White Plains, October 28, 1776, were cared for. According to an eye-witness, after the White Plains engagement the dead were piled like cordwood in the Fishkill street between the two churches.
The New York Provincial Convention, evacuating New York City on August 29, 1776, before the threatened invasion of the British, came to Fish- kill. Its first sessions in the village were held September 5 of that year in the English church, and later sessions were held in the more commodious Dutch church until February, 1777, when it removed to Kingston.
To add to the burden of the villagers, numerous refugees, the "poor and distressed," from New York and White Plains fled to Fishkill, where they found asylum in the already overcrowded community. Among these was Samuel Loudon, the Whig printer, who set up his press in the house of Robert Brett (see Obadiah Bowne house, p. 84), and issued on October 1, 1776, the first number of the New York Packet and American Advertiser, the first newspaper to be printed in Dutchess County. In this house he also printed the
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Reformed Dutch Church at Fishkill
Road to old landing near mouth of Wappinger Creek
first copies of the Constitution of the State of New York, drawn up by John Jay, the Journal of the Legislature, and most of Washington's military orders. The State Constitutional Convention met in the Bowne house in 1776, and the following year ratified Jay's Constitution in Kingston. Loudon continued his paper until the end of the war, when he returned to New York.
After the war, the Dutch Church, emptied of its prisoners, was in such disrepair, that it was deemed unfit for use as a House of God. Accordingly, poor as they had become after bearing the burdens of war for seven years, the congregation decided to rebuild their church. The work, begun in 1785, required 10 years to complete. All stone, timber, hauling, and labor were donated by members of the congregation. When the building was half done funds failed, and the villagers were obliged to borrow money from their relatives in Long Island to carry on.
Although in 1789 Fishkill was considered important enough to be granted a post office, one of but seven then in the State, it appears that from the Revolutionary period to the Civil War the village grew slowly. The construction of the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad in 1869 brought the village a fresh impulse. A paper bag mill and other factories were built and the town's population mounted to almost 1,000. At that time Fishkill had four churches, a "select" school, a free school, two banks, and a weekly newspaper. Such prosperity, however, was not destined to en- dure. Within four years the factories closed their doors, and in December, 1873, the year of the panic, a fire, said to have been the work of an incen- diary, destroyed many of the historic buildings. From this disaster Fishkill never recovered. By 1880 its population had decreased to 800, and today numbers but half that of 1870. The "select" school, one of the two banks, and the weekly newspaper are gone, and only the churches, the free school, and the savings bank remain. Most of the Revolutionary landmarks in the vicinity of Fishkill are included in Tour No. 3.
Contemporary Fishkill is primarily the home of retired farmers and professional and business men, and the village has known some development as a suburb of Beacon. Foreign-born families, although they settle in the countryside, have avoided the village itself.
FOOT TOUR (1 m.)
The tour begins at the western entrance to the village on Main St. (State 52).
1. Adjoining the now unused airplane landing field (R) on the out- skirts of the village is the WHITE HOUSE (R), approached by a long, straight, tree-lined driveway. Dr. Bartow White, who built it in 1805, called it "Avenue Farm." A frame building, two stories high, with a service wing at the east end, it is a good example of the Dutchess County house of its period. Silver hardware was used throughout.
Dr. White served as a member of Congress from 1825 to 1827 and as a presidential elector for New York State in 1840. In this house he reared
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his ten children, one son and nine daughters, the last two of whom he humorously named Octavia and Novenia.
On both sides of the street are substantial houses set in spacious grounds, varying in architecture from the simple Dutch Colonial to the more ornate style of the nineties.
2. The edge of the business section is marked by the small brick BANK BUILDING (R), now Dean's, the shop of the village historian. The building is little changed since the banking business was suspended in 1877.
3. East one-half block is the JAMES GIVEN HOUSE (L), a white house with green shutters, and fenced along the street front by white wooden pickets. It is a solid frame building of generous proportions. Its doorway is Georgian, the pilasters of the frame grooved in the upper portion. Given, the builder, came to Fishkill from Ireland in 1798. Prospering as a merchant, he built this dwelling in 1811, naming it "Shillelagh," after the town in which probably he was born. It is related that a bottle of wine used in christening the house failed to break, an incident which was taken to be an omen that the structure would never burn. The house was in fact spared by the 1873 fire. Given's memory is also perpetuated in the elms which he set out along Main Street the year he built his house.
4. The ELM at the entrance to VAN WYCK HALL (L) is the pride of Fishkill. Planted about 1790, it now measures over 4 ft. in diam- eter. The hall is a large frame building used as a community center.
5. Across the street is the UNION HOTEL (R), a red brick build- ing occupying the site of an inn kept in Revolutionary days by James Cooper, which may have been for a time the headquarters of Washington during the encampment in the village. Prisoners of war were tried here. The inn perished in the great fire.
6. Just beyond is YE OLDE FISHKILL INNE (R) formerly the Mansion House, built by Cornelius Van Wyck in 1820. Though altered, it retains its stout oak timbers, original doorway, and triple windows in each gable end. Major Hatch, later manager of the Poughkeepsie Hotel (See Poughkeepsie, p. 38) was the first host. Among the noted men who have stopped here were President Martin Van Buren, Henry Clay, Aaron Burr, Washington Irving, and Benson J. Lossing.
7. Across the street is the REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH (L), the embodiment of Fishkill's life and history. The oldest building in the village, it was enlarged in 1785 around the original church of 1731. Decid- edly Dutch in character, it is a solid structure of stuccoed stone with brick- trimmed corners. Its walls are 3 ft. thick, and its steeple, 128 ft. high, has supported the same weather vane since 1795.
In 1716 a congregation was organized in Fishkill by the Rev. Petrus Vas, fifth pastor at Kingston, in conjunction with one at Poughkeepsie. These two congregations were in the charge of one pastor until 1772. In 1731 the members of the Fishkill congregation petitioned Governor Montgomery for permission to solicit funds with which to build a church. Permission was granted, and the church was immediately erected on land which was
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not formally deeded to the congregation until 1759. Early prints of this building show a heavy rectangular stone edifice with a hip roof surmounted at the middle by a bell-tower and weather vane. Window lights set in iron sash frames were very small, and the upper story walls showed port holes,. used in defense against the Indians. Some of these port holes can still be seen. Much of the labor on this structure was performed by slaves of the settlers, and the materials came from the hills and fields about Fish- kill.
One of the pastors of the church was the Rev. Isaac Rysdyck, who served the congregation from 1765 to 1790 and whose reputation for learning and charm long survived him. He lies buried in the churchyard of the Dutch Church at New Hackensack. (See Tour 2, p. 113). In the Fishkill church- yard are tombstones with Dutch inscriptions which antedate the church. The grave of Catharyna Rombout (Madam Brett), daughter of the patentee, formerly in the cemetery, was enclosed under the pulpit when the church was enlarged.
This church figures in Cooper's novel, The Spy, the hero of which, Harvey Birch, was in real life Enoch Crosby, an American secret service agent. Crosby was held here among Tory prisoners, whom he had tricked into captivity, and by prearrangement with the guards was permitted to escape.
8. The BLODGETT MEMORIAL LIBRARY (R) stands across the street a short distance beyond the church. This small stone building was given to the village in 1934 by John Woods Blodgett in memory of his father. It is an example of modern Colonial architecture. The library was at first opposed, it is said, on the grounds that "everyone in town has a library of his own."
9. The FISHKILL GRILL (R) on the SE. corner of the junction of Main St. and US 9, is a lunch wagon of interest principally because it is a stopping place of President Franklin D. Roosevelt when en route to or from his Hyde Park home.
10. One block beyond US 9 is the historic TRINITY CHURCH (R), erected in 1769 and known locally as the "English Church." It stands to- day, a Colonial frame structure, very little altered except that a tall steeple, deemed unsafe, was removed in 1803. The high, many-paned windows are noteworthy.
The church congregation was founded in 1756 by the Rev. Samuel Sea- bury. In that year, Seabury, a missionary of the Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel, came riding into the village of Fishkill on a sorrel horse. Ordained a priest in 1730 by the Bishop of London, he had been rector of an English church in Hempstead, Long Island, but disgusted with the constant bickerings between his congregation and that of a neighboring Dutch church, he resigned and set forth. In Fishkill the Dutch received him cordially, readily granting his request to preach in their church. It is said that more than 300 persons gathered from miles around to hear his first sermon. He soon formed his own congregation, which in- cluded Dutchmen whom he had converted.
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In 1776 Trinity Church, jointly with Christ Church of Poughkeepsie, had the Rev. John Beardsley as its rector. (See Poughkeepsie, p. 38). Another rector, the Rev. Philander Chase, who served here from 1797 to 1805, afterward became Bishop of Ohio and of Illinois and founded Kenyon College in Ohio and Jubilee College in Illinois. The son of the founder of the church, also named Samuel Seabury, became the first Epis- copal Bishop in the United States. This name and line are carried on by Justice Samuel Seabury of New York City.
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