USA > New York > Ulster County > Gazetteer and business directory of Ulster County, N.Y. for 1871-2 > Part 11
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These regiments were filled from time to time as their ranks became depleted in the service. Many individuals and some whole companies were raised in this County for other regiments, but we have no means at hand for determining the full number who served their country in the army during the Rebellion. Enough is known to show that the present generation are not unworthy representatives of their Revolutionary sires.
The Ulster County Agricultural Society was organized about thirty years ago. Their Fair Ground embraces eleven and a half acres in the north-east part of the village of Kingston, it is surrounded by a substantial fence and contains several buildings for society purposes. The buildings cost about $6.000, on which rests a debt of 8800. The value of the property is $9,000. Lewis N. Hermance, Prest; Wm. Lounsbery, Sec .; Charles P. Ridenour, Treas.
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DENNING, named in honor of Wm. H. Denning, for- mer proprietor of a large part of the town, was formed from Shandaken, March 6, 1849. A part of Hardenburgh was taken off in 1859. Itlies in the north-west part of the County on the border of Sullivan. The surface is broken and mountain- ous. A spur of the Catskill Mountains extends through the town, with a mean elevation of 1,500 to 2,000 feet. Its streams are head branches of Rondout Creek and Neversink River. The valleys are narrow ravines bordered by steep and rocky hillsides. The soil upon the uplands is a gravelly loam, and in the valleys a sandy loam. It is very sparsely populated, the settlement being chiefly confined to the valleys. Its chief wealth consists in its heavy growth of timber.
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Denning (p. o.,) is near the center of the town.
Dewittsville is a hamlet near the south line.
Settlements were made at a comparatively recent period. The first saw mill was built in 1827, and the first tannery, at Dewittsville, by De Witt & Reynolds.
The population in 1870 was 1,044, and its area 65,445 acres, with an assessed value of $49,260.
There are eight school districts in the town, employing the same number of teachers. The number of children of school age is 466; the number attending school, 289; the average at- tendance, 112, and the value of school houses and sites, 82,330.
ESOPUS was formed from Kingston April 5, 1811. A part was set off to Kingston, and a part of Hurley was annexed in 1818, and a part of New Paltz, April 12, 1842. It lies upon the Hudson and is the central town upon the east border of the County. The surface is rolling in the east and moderately hilly in the west. . A range of hills extends north and south, through near the center of the town, the highest peak of which is 1,632 feet above tide. Huzzey Hill, named from an Indian, south of Rondout, is 1000
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(«: high. Wallkill forms a part of the west boundary, and 1: sdout Creek forms the remaining part of the west and the tth boundary. Swartekill and Black Creek are in the wath part. The soil is a light clay loam. Fruit growing is an important branch of business. Cement is extensively manu- factured, and considerable commerce is carried on by means of the river and Delaware & Hudson Canal. Along the bluffs that overlook the Hudson are some fine residences. Two light- bouses are built in the river opposite this town, one of them ixing at the mouth of Rondout Creek. A new light house is in process of construction for Esopus Meadows. The founda- tion is to consist of 250 piles, 40 feet long, driven down solid and cut off three feet below low water mark; these piles are to cupped with timber twelve inches square, planked over with three inch pine plank, making a round pier, 49 feet at the base and 46 at the top. The house is to be 27 feet, ten inches square, one story with mansard roof, surmounted by a tower for the light, 52 feet above mean low water.
Port Ewen,.(p. v.) situated on the west bank of the Hudson, a short distance below the mouth of Rondout Creek, was laid out in 1851, by the Pennsylvania Coal Company, as a coal depot, and has been used as such until the present time; but since 1805 the greater part of the business has been transferred to Newburgh, the Company using the Erie Railway for transport- ing their coal, instead of the Delaware and Hudson Canal as previously, The village is beautifully situated on land gradu- ally rising from the river bank to the hight of 180 feet. The view is very fine, with the river and Dutchess County on the East, the Catskill Mountains in the north, while the river val- ley stretches away to the south, bordered by Huzzey's Hill and Shawangunk Mountain on the west. The village contains two churches, viz., Methodist and Reformed; two public schools, a hotel, five stores, a bakery and about 1,200 inhabitants. Two daily lines of steamboats connect the place with New York, and a ferry connects it with the Hudson River Railroad.
At the time the village site was purchased in 1851, the pro- perty consisted of three farms containing about 150 acres. The officers of the Company were Irad Hawley, President; John Ewen, Vice-President ; George A. Hoyt, Treasurer; E. H. Hoyt, Secretary ; Wm. Hathaway, Agent. The next year a change took place in officers, John Ewen taking the place of Mr. Hawley as president, and Jacob Kline becoming cashier at Port Ewen, since which there has been no change, all the offi- cers having been re-elected for twenty years. This Company has been very successful in business, the stock being regarded among the most desirable in the New York market.
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Rifton Glen, (p. v.) formerly called Arnoldton, in honor of the builders of the first manufactories, is situated in the south- } west part of the town, on the Wallkill, and contains a hotel, & store, a worsted and woolen yarn factory, a blacksmith shop, a school and about 150 inhabitants. Buttermilk Falls, about & half a mile below, are 42 feet in hight. The village was found- ed by B. & J. Arnold, who erected a cotton mill in 1827-8. The Factory of J. W. Dimick & Co. contains eight sets of worsted machinery and seven sets for yarn, consuming about 2,500 pounds of wool per day, and giving employment to one hundred hands.
Dashville is situated on the Wallkill, about half a mile south of Rifton Glen, and contains a Reformed church, a school, a grist and flouring mill, a saw mill, a carpet weaver, and about sixty inhabitants.
The Dashville Custom and Flouring Mill, established in 1834, is owned by Wm. T. Demerest, and has three runs of stones.
The Laflin & Rand Powder Co. have mills for the manufac- ture of blasting powder in the west part of the town, making about 600 kegs per day and employing 54 men.
South Rondout, situated in the south side of Rondout Creek, contains a malt house, a brewery, four groceries, a manufactory of lime, a school house and about 400 inhabitants.
Sleightsburg, near the mouth of Rondout Creek, contains s store, a ship yard, a school house and about 200 inhabitants. A steam ferry connects it with Rondout on the opposite side of the creek.
Freerville or New Salem, (Fly Mountain p. o.,) in the north- west part of the town, on Rondout Creek, contains a church, a school, the James Cement Works, a cement pipe manufactory, a flour and feed mill and 154 inhabitants.
Elmore's Corners, (Esopus p. o.,) in the east part, about half a mile from the Hudson, contains a Methodist church, a hotel, two stores, a blacksmith shop, a wagon shop, a grist mill, a saw- mill, a bakery and 150 inhabitants.
The Esopus Flouring Mill was built in 1860 by Norman Cole, the present owner, contains two runs of stones and can grind 60,000 bushels per year.
Ulster Park, (p. o.,) formerly called Amesville, contains & Reformed church, a school house, a store, a hotel, a blacksmith and wagon shop, and about sixty inhabitants.
Pellham Farm is the name of a magnificent country seat of Robert L. Pell, Esq., on the Hudson River, in this town. It
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contains 1,200 acres of the choicest land in the State, overlying gravel twelve feet deep. Every lot is watered by living springs. There are over one hundred miles of stone underdrains, built in the most substantial manner. There are ten artificial lakes, fourteen feet deep and connected by fifteen light and beautiful fancy bridges, constructed on iron rods. In these lakes are fifty- five varieties of fish; among them, imported from Europe are the Tench, known as the physician of fishes, and the Barbel. Mr. Pell was the first man in the United States who raised fish from impregnated eggs, and received a magnificent piece of plate from the State Agricultural Society for his experiment and essay on Pisciculture. He has taken premiums for every agricultural product, including cotton and tabacco, amounting to seventy, and for the best agricultural farm in the United States. There is an orchard on his property containing twenty thousand New Town Pippin apple trees, forty years old. The fruit is shipped to Europe and often sells for thirty dollars per barrel. Eight dollars in New York has been the price for many Fears, and eight dollars per box containing one hundred apples. The first quality are boxed, the second quality barreled, and the third quality made into cider, which when bottled sells for four dollars per dozen, a barrel making eleven dozen bottles. Three hundred thousand bushels of apples have been converted into cider in a single season. Mr. Pell has a vineyard of Isabella grapes, containing fifty acres, from six to sixteen years old, and as many as one hundred bushel-and-a-half baskets have been sent to New York in a single day, from Mr. Pell's wharf, where four large steamers land daily for his freight alone. . On this wharf is a large stone building, covered with slate and ventilated at the top, where the apples are sweated for Europe, after which process they will keep nine months after crossing the Atlantic. Mr. Pell does not think well of the early varieties of grapes, such as the Concord, Hartford Prolific, Iona &c., for the New York market, because they have to compete with peaches, and there is little or no sale for them. When the Isabella arrives, there is no other fruit in the market except apples and pears, conse- quently they realize good prices. The peach orchards on this property are extensive and the varieties numerous. There are many horses, mules, oxen, cows, sheep and hogs on this farm. The graveled roads and paths, ten miles in extent, and over many of which we wandered, are romantic in the extreme; the ravines and water courses are spanned by light, airy and dur- able bridges, generally iron. The buildings are numerous and extensive; the cider inill is one hundred feet long by seventy feet wide, with cellar under the whole, filled with vats holding ten barrels each, in which the cider is refined. There are barns
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two hundred feet long by sixty feet wide, and many ornamenta! cottages for the workmen, who have large gardens attached and are permitted to keep a cow. Some of the laborers have lived on this estate for thirty years, and during that period Mr. Pell has had only three gardeners. In the garden there are four hundred feet of cold graperies, containing forty-five varieties of foreign grapes. Here they were first raised in this country without artificial heat. Last year he sold twelve hundred tons of hay and made two thousand double wagon loads of manure.
His mansion house is built of brick, in the Roman style. and painted a beautiful straw color and white. It has columns in front and extensive piazzas, and is about seventy feet square. The interior is Grecian. On the ceiling of the dining room, which is twenty-eight feet by twenty-four, there are pictures, painted in Rome on canvass, expressly for it, and costing many thousand dollars, representing Guido's Aurora, Raphael's Ga- latea, Venus drawn by doves, Triumph of Alexander entering Babylon, Morning and Evening by Thorswalden.
Mr. Pell owns a magnificent island, over a mile in length and lying opposite his domain in the middle of the Hudson River, for which he has been offered fabulous prices for ice houses. He also owns Woodstock (Overlook) Mountain, now a fashionable resort for summer tourists; Paltz Point, another favorite resort, and four thousand acres of land in one body in rear of his country seat. The writer was informed by a re- liable person, that Mr. Pell purchased during the Rebellion, seventeen millions of acres of wild land, for nominal prices, in Georgia, Virginia, Florida, Texas, Arkansas and Missouri ; and sold to the Rothschilds in Europe three millions of acres for seven dollars an acre, and they resold the same for fourteen dollars an acre.
Settlements were made by the Dutch soon after the first settlement of the County. William Houghtaling came from Holland and was one of the first settlers. . The farm now owned and occupied by William Smith, near Rifton, was originally purchased of Johannis Hardenburgh, the patentee, by William Smith, who was the first settler in this part of the town, in 1730. The farm has been handed down from father to son till the present time, and during this 141 years there has never been a mortgage or any incumbrance given. John Delamater is said to have been the first settler at Freerville. Gerret I. Freer settled here about 1:S5. Eliphas Van Aken was another of the early settlers. Johannes Louw is supposed to be the first child born in the town, in 1681. The first marriage was that of Baltus Terpening and Tryntje Van Vliet, in 1682. William Hinman taught a school at the Hook in 1763.
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The Reformed Church of Esopus, located at Ulster Park, was the first church organization within the present limits of this town. It was organized in 1791 by Rev. Stephen Goetchius and his Elders, with fourteen members. The early settlers were connected with the churches in New Paltz and Kingston, and received occasional visits from the pastors of those churches. During the stormy times of the Revolution, the churches were distracted as well as the country. From the History of the Church at New Paltz, we find the following extract from one of the sermons of Dominie Goetchius, who was pastor of that church from 1775 to 1796 :
"At the close of the war I perceived there were places where new con- gregations might be gathered. I did undertake-collected-and organ- ized nine churches. Being the only minister in the Dutch Church in Ulster County, my labors in solemnizing marriages, in visiting and per- forming parochial duties, were very severe, and rather more than I could endure; but the Lord helped me as I have reason to believe." 1
The first pastor of the Church was Rev. T. G. Smith ; the first house of worship was erected in 1792; the present house in 1827, at a cost of $6,000. The present value of the church property is $12,000. The present membership is 50; the present pastor is Rev. I. N. Voorhis. The number of members received from the organization of the Church until the present time is 660. Two churches, North Esopus and St. Remy, have been organized from this, which accounts in a measure for the small membership at the present time.
St. Remy Reformed Church, located in the north-west part of the town, about a mile from Eddyville, was organized in 1857 by Rev. Mr. McFarlane, with 22 members. The first pastor was Rev. Mr. McFarlane. Their house of worship was erected in 1857; it will seat 150, and cost about $2,000. The present membership is 43; the present value of church property is about $2,500.
Ascension Church was organized in 1842 by L. M. H. Butler, Archibald Russell, John Griffith, Reuben Sherwood, Joseph B. Cottle and E. W. Butler. A house of worship was erected the same year, costing $1,500 and seating 150. The first pastor was Rev. Albert D. Traver ; the present pastor Rev. Henry B. Sherman. The membership is sixteen, and the value of the church property is 810,000.
The Church of Jahvah, (Jehovah) located at New Salem, was organized in 1860 by Joseph T. Curry, the first pastor, with 25 members. A house of worship, seating 150 and costing $800, was erected the same year. The present membership is 26; the present value of church property is 81,200.
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The population of the town in 1870 was 4,552; its area 22,- 059 acres, with an assessed value of $661,075.
It is divided into 16 school districts, employing 18 teachers. The number of children of school age is 1,845; the number at- tending school, 1,232 ; the average attendance, 577; the value of school houses and sites, $14,650.
GARDINER was formed from Rochester, New Paltz and Shawangunk, April 2, 1853. It was named in honor of Addi- son Gardiner, formerly Lieut. Governor. It is an interior town, lying south of the center of the County. The surface is rolling in the east and hilly in the west and center. The Shawangunk Mountains extend along the west border. " The Traps " is a deep gully, 650 feet wide, extending through the mountains. The Wallkill flows north-east through near the center, and receives the Shawangunk from the south-west. The soil is chiefly a gravelly loam, with clay and alluvium along the streams. Lumber and leather are manufactured to some ex- tent. The Wallkill Valley R. R., extends through the town.
Tuthill, (p. v.) on the Shawangunk Creek, about a mile west of Gardiner Station, on the W. V. R. R., contains two hotels, a store, a school house, a grist mill, a saw mill, a carding and fulling mill, a harness shop, a wagon shop and sixteen dwell- ings.
Jenkinstown, named from James Jenkins, who built the mills about 1:04-5, is in the north-east part of the town, on the Plattekill, and contains two grist mills, a saw mill, a store, a blacksmith shop, a cooper shop and forty inhabitants.
The Sole Leather Tannery of F. S. Mckinstry, on the Shaw- angunk Creek, has a capacity for making 7,000 sides annually.
Libertyville, (p. v.) in the north part of the town, on the Wall- kill, contains a store, a hotel, a blacksmith shop, a grist mill, a saw mill and 46 inhabitants.
Rutsonville is a hamlet in the south-east part.
Gardiner Station, on the W. V. R. R., contains a hotel and a store.
Forest Glen is a station on the W. V. R. R., in the north part of the town.
The first settlement was made by a colony of French Hu- guenots at a very early day. Jacobus Bruyn was one of the early settlers. The house now occupied by John V. Mckinstry, and situated on the west bank of the Shawangunk Creek, was built
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by him in 1824, as appears from a block of marble containing the following inscription :
"Time is a devourer of all things." " JACOBUS BRUYN 1724," " Virtue is a driver away of all vices."
There is only one church in the town.
The Reformed Church of Guilford was organized July 20, 1833, with 23 members. A house of worship was erected the same year, and was enlarged and improved in 1859. It will seat 350 and is valued at $4,000. The present membership is 69. The first pastor was Rev. Wm. Brush ; the present pastor is Rev. Richard De Witt.
The population of the town in 1870 was 1,991, and its area 26,257, with an assessed value of $466,830.
There are nine school districts, employing the same num- ber of teachers. The number of children of school age is 813 ; the number attending school, 465 ; the average attendance, 198 ; the value of school houses and sites, $4,730.
HARDENBURGH, named in honor of Johannes Har- denburgh, the patentee of a large tract in this and adjoining counties, was formed from Denning and Shandaken, April 15, 1859. It lies in the extreme west corner of the County. The surface is a broken and mountainous upland, the highest summits being 2,000 feet above tide. It occupies a portion of the watershed between the Hudson and Delaware. Beaverkill, Mill Brook and Dry Brook take their rise in the town.
Dry Brook (p. o.) is a hamlet. Turnwood and Hardenburgh are post offices.
The population of the town in 1870 was 629, and its area 48,187 acres, with an assessed value of $39,971.
There are seven school districts, employing the same number of teachers. The number of children of school age is 314; the number attending school, 274; the average attendance, 99, and the value of school houses and sites, $2,070.
HURLEY, named in honor of the Barons Hurley, in Ireland, was granted by patent, October 19, 1708. A part of the Hardenburgh Patent was released by Margaret Livingston, and was annexed March 3, 1789 ; and a part of New Paltz was taken off in 1809, a part of Esopus in 1818, a part of Olive in 1823, a part of Rosendale in 1844, and a part of Woodstock in 1853. It is an interior town, lying north-east of the center of the County. The surface is a rolling and moderately hilly upland, the highest summits being about 700 feet above tide.
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Esopus Creek flows north-east through the south part. Along its course are extensive fertile flats, bordered by high hills. The soil is a sandy loam. Stone quarrying is largely car- ried on, the stone being used for building and flagging pur- poses. Several hundred men are engaged in the business, and more than 200,000 tons are shipped annually. About one- third of the town is forest.
Hurley, (p. v.) situated on Esopus Creek, contains a Re- formed church, two hotels, a store, a school-house, two wagon shops, two blacksmith shops, a shoe shop and about thirty dwellings. The dwellings are chiefly of stone, many of them very old, and a few were built before the Revolution. The walls are still of the most substantial character and appear to be good for another century. A wire suspension bridge, 160 feet long, crosses the creek at this place.
West Hurley, (p. v.) in the north part, is a station on the Rondout and Oswego R. R., and contains three churches, viz., Reformed, Roman Catholic and Methodist, two hotels, four stores, a hardware, a drug and a feed store, three wagon shops, three blacksmith shops, a shoe shop, two meat markets, two paint shops, a saloon, a harness shop, three carpenter shops, a livery stable and a steam saw-mill. Stages connect this place with Woodstock and the Overlook Mountain. The village is flourishing and is destined to become an important point.
The first settlements were made at a very early day, by the Dutch. The following from J. W. Hasbrouck's manuscript History of Ulster Co., will throw some light on the early settlement :
" When Wiltwyck was sacked by the savages, 'a horseman came riding into town at the Mill gate, crying the new village is burned.' This proves it was beyond the site of the old town, and that it was higher up the Kill, for the Mill gate was in the present North Front street, near the old brewery. In the years 1662, 3 and 4, Thos. Hall, Nicholas Varlett, Mattys Blanshan, Anthony Crispel, Lambert Huyberts, Roeloff Swartwout, John Thommassen, Petrus Schuyler, Jan Volckert, Lewis Dubois, Gosen Gerrets, Albert Heymanse Roosa and Lambert Kool, all obtained patents in the 'Nieuw Dorp.' The country soon after changed hands, when an order was issued by Governor Nicolls, commanding all the deeds confirmed, under pain of forfeiture. This was in 1666. Those that were immediately confirmed were again described as in the new Dorp, but many neglected it, depending on their right of possession. In the meantime Sir Francis Lovelace was sent over as Governor, who commissioned his brother Dudley Lovelace, to go to the
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Esopus with several others to settle the troubles between the burghers and soldiers-advance the works of the third village, then about to be settled by the English troops, and to nanie the several towns. Accordingly on the 18th of September, 1669, he visited the furthermost Dorp, christened it Marble- town and returned to the second village where he wrote, 'The place formerly called the new Dorp was named Hurley, after the paternal estate of the Governor.'"
In 1719 the following persons held the office of Trustees of the Corporation : Cornelius Kool, Adrien Garretsie, Jacob Du Bois, Barnabas Swartwout, Jacob Rutse, Nicolaes Roosa and Charles Wyle.
A grist mill was built soon after the commencement of the settlement, and a hotel was kept at the village by Charles De- Witt, about 1760. When Kingston was burnt, in 1777, the people of this town fled to Hurley for refuge.
Tradition says that Daniel Taylor, a spy, was hanged on an apple tree, near Hurley village, after the burning of Kingston. He was arrested on the 10th of October, in the neighborhood of Little Britain, Orange Co., by a picket guard under Lieut. Howe. He appears to have been deceived by the uniform of the party, they being clothed in red coats recently captured from the British. On asking his captor who his commanding general was, and being told General Clinton, he wished to be conducted into his presence, and was greatly surprised to find George Clin- ton, Governor of New York, instead of Sir Henry Clinton, the Roval Commander. A letter from Gen. Clinton to the Council of Safety, gives an account of the interview :
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