USA > New York > Dutchess County > General history of Duchess County from 1609 to 1876, inclusive > Part 19
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This was their first meeting. Their second occurred about twelve years afterward, at an auction at Paine's Mill, a short distance below Millerton, when the man said to David, "They tell me you are the man that abused me so on the road to Poughkeepsie." David, who was a little deaf, replied- "Abused you, did you say, or bruised you ; I remember of bruising a man." "Well, both," was the reply ; "you struck me with a stone." "Oh, yes," said David; and raising his fist continued, " that's the stone I struck you with, it was an Eggle-stone." Two of David's grandsons are now Methodist ministers.
Elder John Leland was a Baptist preacher, and came from the western part of Massachusetts. While living in Massa- chusetts, the people of his town made an immense cheese,. weighing some five hundred pounds, and commissioned Leland to present it to Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United
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States. He received it graciously, and in turn sent a piece of it to the Governor of each State.
Joshua and Ephraim Hamblin owned the farm on which is situated the Mount Riga ore-beds. Wm. Tonkey came from France, and bought a large tract east of the center line of the Oblong, extending northward to Boston Corners. He had three sons, Daniel, Anthony, and Nicholas, and one daughter. Nicholas was a singular character. He was a firm believer in witches. They appeared to him in the shape of cats, woodchucks, and fleas. He believed all women having black eyes and black hair were witches. One Mrs. Hamblin, who joined farms with him, was the worst of the whole lot. This aged lady, then seventy-five years old, wished to go to the house of a neighbor, and took a back road to avoid going by a house in which some people were sick with the small-pox. Tonkey met her, and cut her on the forehead so as to cause the blood to flow, for the purpose, as he said, of breaking the enchantment. It is supposed that he hid the money in the rocks that Byron Bishop found a few years ago. His affair with the old lady cost him several hundred dollars.
John and David Buttolph were brothers. The former was an influential member in the M. E. Church. He had six sons, viz : Asa ; Warren ; John, who was a Baptist minister, and preached several years in this town; Milton, a Methodist preacher in the early part of his life, but who afterwards joined the Presbyterians ; Morris, and David.
Elder Truman Hopkins for many years preached in the Baptist Church of this town. He had three sons and two daughters. The sons were named Enos, Truman, and Joseph.
The ancestors of the Ketcham family bought a tract of five hundred acres in this town for five hundred pounds, a part of which is now owned by the Egglestons and Sheldons. Ketcham erected a mill on a small stream, the head of the Oblong River. He also kept tavern. He had twelve child- ren. His son Noah became crazy, and cut his throat with a razor, at Pine Plains. The razor was afterward in possession
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of Josiah Halstead. Simeon Kelsey owned what is known as the Camp farm, and was a man of considerable wealth. He left three children, two sons and a daughter. To the latter, he gave at his death his whole property, except ten dollars to each of his sons.
Josiah Wilcox lived on the farm now occupied by Alanson Culver. Jonathan Close came from Putnam County. He had three sons, Jonathan, Reuben, and Solomon, and a daughter that married a Williams, a gunsmith at Boston Corners. Joel Rogers lived near Boston Corners.
Nathaniel Lathrop married a daughter of Elder Dakin, and lived near Mount Riga Station. He moved from this town before 1800.
Three brothers by the name of Culver came from France, and settled in this country. Elisha Culver was a descendant of one of the brothers, and settled near the old Baptist Church at Spencers Corners. Both himself and wife were members of the Episcopal Church. He was a Justice of the Peace under King George. He used to draw up many of the legal documents for the people. The family have preserved a deed written by him which is dated 1764. He had three sons and four daughters; Elisha, Jun., Joseph, and John; Hannah, Sarah, Martha, and Polly. Elisha had a son who became a sea captain, and who died on the voyage from Batavia to Philadelphia. John Culver became a Methodist preacher, having been received into the church July, 1788. He was licensed to exhort July, 1790, by Rev. John Bloodgood, and was accepted as a local preacher by Rev. Freeborn Garrettson, in August of the following year. When John Culver began to preach there was no Methodist Church in this town. He held his meetings in barns, school-houses, and private dwellings. He preached in Ancram, Pine Plains, Milan, Copake, Hillsdale, Mount Washington, Sheffield, Salisbury, Sharon, Canaan, Amenia, and Stanford.
According to his Journal, he solemnized over two hundred marriages, and probably preached over eight hundred funeral
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sermons. He preached at the time of the epidemic in Ancram, when the deaths averaged three a week. The Metho- dists then built their houses of worship very plain. When about to erect one at Salisbury, they asked John M. Holley to contribute for the purpose, who declared his willingness if they would "build anything but a sheep pen." The society have now two neat houses of worship in the town. In the year 1807, and for some time thereafter, one traveling Metho- dist preacher supplied the following places with preaching once a fortnight, viz :- Pine Plains, Milan, Ancram (where they built the first house of worship in that town), Copake, Hillsdale, Amenia, Salisbury, Sharon, and Canaan.
Elisha Driggs was a tanner, and came from Middletown, Conn., and lived on the James Halstead place. Thomas Haywood moved on the George Dakin farm about the year 1802. He had five sons and nine daughters that grew to years of maturity. Most of them were members of the Methodist Church. The traveling minister used to preach at his house once a fortnight. A resident of his vicinity died, who bequeathed his property to a school district, to be expended in the erection of a school-house. Haywood promised $50 more, provided they would build it large enough to hold meetings in, which they did. This was in the year 1807, and the building is yet standing, we believe.
Agrippa Martin lived on the David Eggleston farm. He married a daughter of Elder Hopkins. Holley had two sisters, who married, respectively, Philip Spencer and Elisha Colver. Holley had four sons, Luther, Josiah, John and Newman. Luther married a daughter of Elder Dakin, and lived in Salisbury. He left five sons : John M. was a merchant, and owned a furnace at Salisbury ; Edward O. was Sheriff of Columbia County ; Newman was a farmer ; Horace became a Presbyterian minister, and Orville was a lawyer.
Josiah Holley lived on the Douglass farm, at the lower end of Rudds Pond, and moved from it during the Revolution to the town of Ancram. Newman belonged to the British Light
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Infantry, and at the close of the war emigrated to Nova Scotia. John Holley, Jun., took an active part in that struggle. He was at the battle of Saratoga, and a number of other engage- ments.
About one hundred and fifty rods from the west line of Northeast, in the town of Ancram, are the "Cave" and " Oven," two natural curiosities which attract numbers of visitors. The cave was discovered by a man named Holmes. He was hunting ; and hearing his dog barking in a peculiar manner, he went up to him, but all he could see was a hole in the ground. Holmes pushed his dog into the opening, and went on, thinking the animal would soon follow him ; but he never returned. This excited some curiosity ; and one day some young men went to examine the cave. They advanced a few feet, got frightened, and scrambled out as quickly as possible. They said they saw some barrels in the further end of the cavern, and heard strange noises, and believed it to be a den of thieves. Afterward John Holley, Moses Dolph and John Culver, went into the cave, and at the farther extremity found a spring and the remains of a dog. After this it was frequently visited.
About this time the State appointed some men to examine. it, to determine its fitness for a prison, like one in Connecticut. They decided it was too damp to be used for that purpose. The oven lies about eighty rods west of the cave. It is a piece of detached stone, and is so named from its shape, which resembles a large oven. A few years ago a geologist visited the locality ; he gave it as his opinion that the oven was formed by the action of water.
At the foot of Winchell Mountain, near the Snyder tan yard, at the time of the Revolution, stood a log hut. Sixty rods from this stood another. In the vicinity dwelt the Hart- well family. These three dwellings were the only ones in that immediate neighborhood ; they stood in the edge of the forest, each in a small clearing. Back of them the woods were filled with Indians, friendly and unfriendly to the white people.
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These pioneer settlers were staunch Whigs. A little to the north of them in the town of Ancram, lived two or three fami- lies, who were Tories of the rankest type, who did not scruple to add murder to their list of crimes. A plan was matured, by which they were to surround the Whig dwellings in the dead of of night, and assisted by some of the Indians, murder the families in cold blood. The night appointed for the execution of their horrible intentions at length came. Some friendly Indians having revealed the project to the Hartwells and their neighbors, the latter had armed themselves, and had all congregated at one point. As they numbered quite a formida- ble force, the attacking party did not dare molest them.
At another time the white people were advised by a friendly squaw, who had stolen away from the Indian village for that purpose in the silence of the night, that some Tories were lying in wait in the vicinity, to pick them off by stealth. The next morning the Hartwells to the number of three or four set out for the bush in which they were informed a Tory was secreted. They entered in different directions, and com- menced to "beat up the game." The only avenue of escape left to the cow-boy was across a clearing, some rods in width. One man, an excellent marksman, was stationed to watch this Point. Presently a shout announced the game had started ; almost immediately he broke cover, and ran at full speed across the clearing. The man fired upon him, but the fleeing Tory only sped the faster, and was soon lost to sight in the opposite thicket. They pursued him for more than a mile, guided by the blood he left in his track, and then lost him. No information was ever received as to who their enemy was, or what was the result of the wound. The Whigs were never again molested from that source.
Connected with Spencers Corners is a tradition touching the untimely fate of a pedlar. He had been observed to have quite a large amount of jewelry, and was believed to have had considerable money besides. He was last seen near this village late one afternoon, and was never heard of more alive.
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His sudden disappearance, together with the fact of his carry- ing so many valuables, gave rise to suspicions of foul play. His body was searched for, and inquiries made after him in the neighboring villages and townships, but all efforts proved fruitless. After the excitement had passed over, and the incident nearly forgotten, some parties had occasion to look into an old well in the village, and there discovered an object which proved to be the body of the missing pedlar. The poor fellow had been robbed and murdered, and for want of a better hiding place, his body had been thrown into this unused well. The murderers were never found out, and the case will probably ever remain a mystery.
After the Moravians the Methodists held the first religious meetings in this town. The first sermon preached was in a house which stood east of the present residence of William James, Esq., near Sharon Station. East of this stood the old Slawson Tavern ; and still farther east was the stone house known as the Ray House. One of the early preachers was familiarly known as Billy Hibbard. He was once met by a Presbyterian clergyman, who rather sneeringly inquired to what order he belonged. "I belong to the kneeling order," was the prompt reply of the unpolished but honest Hibbard.
Probably the oldest house in town is the brick house built by Ezra Clark, grandfather of Hiram Clark, Esq., who came from Lisbon, in Conn., about the time of the Revolution, and is now occupied, we believe, by one Tanner. A family of Wheelers lived west and south of Indian Pond. The Good- riches located near Northeast Centre, and the Collins family towards Amenia. The Spencers owned the farm on which Hiram Clark resides. Spencers Corners is a hamlet named after that family, and was formerly quite a business place. The town meetings were sometimes held at Northeast Centre before the division of Northeast* was made.
* Notheast, Milan, and Pine Plains, comprise the Little Nine Partners traet, which was granted by the Crown in 1706, to nine men, viz: Sampson Boughton, George ('lark. Rip Van Dam, James Graham, R. Lurting, F. Fauconier, Thomas Wenham, Richard Mompesson, and Richard Sackett.
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In the vicinity of the Sharon ore-bed are several old dwellings, whose ancient style and dilapidated appearance show them to be centenarians. One of them stands on the very brink of the pit, and to the observer seems ready to top- ple over into the abyss at any moment.
Nov. 6th, 1751, nine persons constituted themselves into a. Baptist Church, in the Philipse Patent, now Putnam County. Here they were much disturbed by outside trouble. They were invited to remove to Northeast Precinct. The pastor and others visited this locality, and were persuaded that "God was calling them to go up and possess the land." Here the. very log-cabin overflowed with plenty, and here no standing order could bind the conscience. The reasons for removal
House built by Ezra Clark.
seemed so weighty, and the invitation so cordial, that it was. decided the change should be at once made. Previous to removal, however, they dismissed several of their number to form another church in the vicinity, over which Brother Cole was ordained as pastor On the Ist day of May, 1773, they held their first covenant meeting in Northeast at the house of Rev. Simon Dakin, pastor, near "Spencers Clearing." Here again they set up their banner, and for three years held public. religious services.
During the year 1775 occurred the events which led to the Revolution. Among those that signed the patriots' pledge we find the names of James Winchell, Benjamin Covey, Ensly, Simmons, Elisha Mead, David Hamblin, the Knickerbackers, John Fulton, Ebenezer Crane, Smith Simmons, Israel Thomp- son, Nathaniel Mead, and others. The Maltby bed of iron
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ore, then known as the Dakin bed, had been opened several years before, but was abandoned. It was this year re-opened, and iron taken out for the casting of cannon for the patriot army.
In 1776, they prepared to build a sanctuary. Simon Dakin, their pastor, donated them the land now occupied by the old graveyard at Spencer's Corners, and on this they laid the foundation. While slavery was multiplying its victims, the church began to feel the promptings of humanity against the slave trade ; and at a church meeting held Sept. 24th, 1778, they declared slavery to be contrary to the gospel, and voted they would do nothing to uphold it. This is the first public act for the abolition of slavery within the County, of which we have any knowledge.
In 1780, Elder E. Wood, and others, withdrew from the Northeast Church, and organized a branch in Amenia Precinct. Wood became their pastor.
After Elder Simon Dakin had served the church for nearly thirty years, he was permitted in 1782 to see the greatest revival known under his ministry. He baptized thirty-one candidates during that year. In 1786, a single case of " Wo- man's Rights" was brought before the church, and a sister was excluded for not obeying her husband, and usurping authority over him. A serious division of sentiment occurred the fol- lowing year, and a council met at their house of worship to advise with them. As the result, fifteen were dismissed to form a new church, which they did at what is now Northeast Centre, on ground now occupied by the Methodists. In 1797, the church so many years blessed in the ministrations of Brother Dakin, followed sadly his remains to their last resting place.
During the five years subsequent to 1803, Rev. John Leland moved into the town, purchased land, and took charge ·of the church. He preached on the Sabbath at the meeting house, and on week-day evenings in the large kitchen of the house now the Presbyterian parsonage. In 1808 the church
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was visited by Elder Isaac Fuller, of Roxbury, Conn., and a great revival followed. Over one hundred conversions were announced, sixty-seven baptized, and the membership aug- mented to eighty-eight. Among the converts was James Winchell. The same year, Brother I. Allerton, from the Hills- dale Church, came among them, was invited to the pastorate, and afterwards ordained.
James M. Winchell, graduate of Brown University, was in 1812, licensed to preach. He was ordained the following year at Bristol, R. I., and soon after was installed as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Boston. The same year Brother John Buttolph was licensed to preach. On the 4th of May, 1814, he was ordained, and began his pastoral labors among them. He continued with them eleven years, when he removed west. In 1821 a revival came, and Buttolph baptized sixty-six, among them John I. Fulton, who was next year licensed and sent forth an approved minister of the Gospel. Seth Thomp- son was licensed to preach, and subsequently became a successful pastor in Connecticut.
The numerical strength of the church had again declined, when, in 1826, Elder Thomas Winter came among them, accepted the call of the church, and served them a period of nearly thirteen years. In 1828, Elder Winter led them to consider the matter of building a new house of worship. A cordial response met his call, and James Winchell, Martin Lawrence, and Samuel Brown, were appointed a building committee.
The house being completed it was, on the 12th of August, 1829, dedicated by appropriate ceremonies. Elder Thomas Winter preached the sermon, and Rufus Babcock, D. D., assisted in the services .. The building cost about $5,000, of which amount James Winchell donated $1,700. It was built of brick, thoroughly constructed, furnished with an excellent bell, and was for many years a blessing and credit to the community.
In 1831, James Winchell and wife gave to the trustees a
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house and fourteen acres of land, for the use of the pastors of the church.
About the year 1866, the church voted to sell the old meeting house, purchase a new site, and erect a new sanctuary in the growing village of Millerton. On the 19th of August, they met for the last time in the old house at Spencers Corners. Precious, tender, and touching reminiscences filled their minds as they realized "It is the last time." Then with a solemn step they went out from the beloved place, and the old brick church became a thing of the past. Nov. 4th, 1867, one hundred and sixteen years after its organization, the church met to lay the corner stone of its fourth, and present house of worship.
Thus have we given, in brief, the history of a church which covers in its existence a century and a quarter, and is a record worthy of profound study. It opens the door into the hidden mysteries of the world's great life. In it we behold the motive power which influenced, controlled, and shaped society. In it we see a religious institution coming into contact with the pride and voluptuousness of the world.
The year 1642 appears, in the history of America in an aspect fitted to arrest the attention. It is a scene of religious bitterness, fury, and persecution, which rises to sight. A number of families, guilty of no crime, who simply stood up for the defense and enjoyment of religious liberty, were so disturbed, harassed, proscribed, that they left Massachusetts, and obtained permission of the "Dutch authorities" to settle in New York Province, there to reside and be favored with the free exercise of religion. This was, to some of them at least, but martyrdom in another form, for they were speedily attacked by Indians, and many brought to suffer death. In this section of country, among the descendants of these people, we trace the origin and progress of our spiritual ancestry.
The oldest mill in the town of Northeast was that built by James Winchell, already mentioned, and which stood at what is now called Irondale. The house now the residence of
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Orville Wakeman, Esq., was built over a century ago by the Buttolph family. John Buttolph had a consumptive sister. When living in this house a hook was driven into the wall ; to this a rope was attached, by the assistance of which the invalid could raise herself to a sitting posture. The hook still remains in its place, and the proprietor says it shall remain there as long as he lives. Mr. Wakeman has in his possession a pair of spectacles belonging to the Hartwell family over two hundred years old, having been brought from the "old country" by the ancestors of the Hartwells. They were made, apparently, by a blacksmith, strong and durable.
A part of Indian Pond lies in the east border of this town, connected with which are some interesting Indian reminiscen- ces, of which mention has already been made in the chapter on Pine Plains. The writer visited the locality in the autum of 1876. The site of the Moravian Mission House near the west shore of the pond is now occupied by a field of stubble. The tombstones that once marked the graves of some of the early missionaries, in an adjacent burial ground, have been removed. Some of these slabs may now be seen standing against a wall in a neighboring field. One of these was a few years ago reset in a slate rock, near the site of the mission, but the cattle finally displaced the stone, and it broke in the fall. The mission house was afterwards occupied as a schoolhouse. It was removed previous to the recollection of the oldest person now living in the neighborhood. This locality together with that of Wechquadnack, on the opposite shore of the pond, are yearly visited by many, who find an interest in the " quaint but forgotten lore" of the earlier occupants of our country.
PAWLING.
POPULATION, 1,760 .- SQUARE ACRES. 28,850.
AWLING was formed as a Town* March 7, 1788, Dover being taken off in 1807. It bears the name of a landholder of that section who was a member of the Provincial Assembly of New York. A high range of hills extends along the east border, and another occupies the west part. t A fine, broad valley is included between these two highland regions. Swamp and Croton Rivers take their rise in this valley,¿ the former flowing north, and the latter south. Wha- ley and Little Ponds-the sources of the Fishkill-lie near the west border. The latter is noted for the black bass found within it. A ridge of limestone extends into the north part from Dover. The soil is a slaty and gravelly loam.
Whaley Pond is the largest body of water in the town. It
* Pawling Precinct was formed from Beckman Precinct, Dec. 31st, 1768.
t Mt. Tom. a prominent peak, one-half mile west of Pawling Station, is about 300 feet above the valley.
About one-fourth of a mile south of the village of Pawling is a bit of lowland, a part of the drainage of which finds its way into Swamp River, and thence into the Housa- tonic. and a part flowing into the Croton. A considerable stream which comes down from Purgatory Hill, and which was originally a tributary of Swamp River, was a few years since diverted from its course, and now supplies the Croton.
q-257
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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
has been considerably enlarged from its original dimensions by a dam built by a Matteawan Company, and is used as a stor- age reservoir for the supply of their factories in time of low water. In this pond are what are locally known as the "Float ing Islands,"-islands covered with a dense growth of bushes and trees of small size, which float on the water, rising and falling to the extent of several feet, as the depth of the water varies. When the water recedes from under these islands, they appear to be imbedded in the mud. A few years since a portion of one of these became detached during a high wind, and floated across to the opposite shore, where it anchored.
Oblong Pond, so named from the fact of its lying partly within the Oblong tract, is in the northeast part of the town. Green Mountain Lake, near Pawling Station, is so called from its proximity to a romantic mountain covered with evergreens. All of the ponds in the town afford fine facilities for fishing.
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