USA > New York > Dutchess County > General history of Duchess County from 1609 to 1876, inclusive > Part 27
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The allusions in this paragraph are explained by a letter written at Poughkeepsie, by Governor Clinton to General
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Clear Everett House.
Schuyler, on the 14th of August, congratulating the general because of his narrow escape from abduction by a band of Tories and Indians. In that letter Clinton wrote he had received a dispatch from General Washington by express, informing him that a party had been sent out from New York to seize the Governor, and deliver him to the British authorities
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there, for which service they were to receive a liberal reward. "I have persons out to watch their movements," Clinton wrote, "and am not without hope of having some of them, at least in my power. This is the third party which has been sent out on this business, and of which I have been apprised during the course of the Spring and Summer, and some of them have met their fate at this place, though for different crimes."
One of these, referred to in the letter, was Huddlestone, the British spy, who was captured at Wild Boar Hill, in West- chester County, near Yonkers, and was tried, condemned and hung at Poughkeepsie, in April, 1780. The place of execu- tion was what was afterwards known as Forbus Hill; in the rear of the present Nelson House in Market Street. Mr. Lossing mentions having heard the venerable Abel Gunn, of Poughkeepsie, who was a drum major in the Continental army, speak of Huddlestone, and of his execution. He described him as a small man with a large head and thick neck. He was accompanied to the scaffold by the county officers, and a small guard of militia enrolled for the purpose.
The old stone house on Market Street was erected in 1741, by a Swede named Von Beck, and for a number of years was occupied by him as a hotel. It afterward passed into the hands of a Mr. Knox, who also used it for hotel purposes. It was at that time, probably, one of the finest houses of enter- tainment on the post road between New York and Albany. The house is of curious construction, the front being of brick, said to have been imported for this purpose from Holland by Von Beck. The back and end walls are of stone, while the gable ends are of brick. On the rear wall is a stone bearing the date 1741.
Four miles below the city is an ancient farm house, and a mill, at the mouth of Spring Brook, at the eastern terminus of Milton Ferry. Here during the Revolution lived Theophi- lus Anthony, blacksmith, farmer, miller, and staunch Whig, who used his forge for making the great chain that stretched
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across the river at Fort Montgomery. Vaughan, in his memorable expedition up the Hudson in the Autumn of 1777, laid the rebel blacksmith's mill in ashes, and caused Anthony to be confined in the Jersey Prison Ship in New York. Three years afterward, Anthony's mill arose from the ashes of the old one.
The following letter relates to the construction of the chain above spoken of :
FISHKILL, Sept. 11th, 1776.
SIR :- It is conceived highly necessary that the Iron Chain should be immediately dispatched. If it is finished, pray send it down to the fort without delay. If it is not finished, let no time be lost, and in the interim give us the earliest particular account of its present state, and when it will be probably finished. I am sir, your very humble servant,
WILLIAM YATES, JUN.
To Gilbert Livingston, Esq., Poughkeepsie.
A few years since a cruel instrument of warfare was picked up in the locality of the forge, and is now in possession of a friend of the writer. The implement of torture was made of iron, with three sharp prongs projecting in such a way that one prong would point upwards in whatever position the instrument lay. It was intended to be thrown in the way of cavalry, to disable the horses.
Toryism prevailed extensively in DUCHESS when the War for Independence broke out. In fact, the inhabitants were about equally divided into Whigs and Tories. In the summer of 1776 an insurrection broke out in the county against the authority of the Provincial Congress. The insurgents went about in small numbers and disarmed Whigs, and at one time the outbreak was so formidable that militia came from Connecticut to aid in putting down the revolters. Many arrests were made; and the jail at Poughkeepsie being full, some were sent to the jail in the adjoining county of Litchfield.
In March of the previous year, a few Whigs met at the
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. house of John Bailey, about three miles east from Poughkeep- sie, and erected a Liberty Pole with a flag on it bearing the words "The King," on one side, and "The Congress and Liberty " on the other. The Sheriff of DUCHESS County attended by a judge of the inferior court, and "two of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace and a constable," with some other Tories, cut down the pole " as a public nuisance." This act no one dared to repeat the next year in Poughkeepsie, for then the fires of the Revolution were burning brighter and more decided.
When the news of the surrender of Cornwallis sent a thrill of joy throughout the land, it was received with delight by the patriotic citizens of Duchess County. The news reached Poughkeepsie on the 29th day of October. The Legislature was then in session here, says Lossing, and both Houses, with the Governor, proceeded to the Reformed Dutch Church, and there offered thanksgivings to God for the great deliverance. The Rev. John H. Livingston officiated on that occasion. From the church the members of the Legislature went out to the residence of the Governor to tender their congratulations. Cannon were fired, bonfires were lighted, and the houses of Whig citizens were illuminated in the evening.
At that time there were only two stores in Poughkeepsie, one kept by Beekman Livingston, on the site of the present Park House, corner of Market and Cannon Streets, and the other by Archibald Stewart, "adjoining the Dutch Church." Fach kept a general assortment of dry goods, groceries, drugs and hardware. On the occasion just alluded to, Beekman's store was illuminated. Stewart was a Scotchman and Loyalist, and his store was "darkened," so to speak, by the light of a single tallow dip.
On the day of rejoicing here, a scouting party returning to a militia camp near the village (the "rebel slaves of Pough- keepsie") met another party just going out, when a negro belonging to the former called out to one of the latter, " I say, Cuffee, what all dat firing we hear to-day?" The other replied,
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" Oh, my dear soul, nuffin' 'tall, only Burgoyne had a brudder born to-day !"
As before stated, when the first enumeration of the inhabi- tants of DUCHESS County was made, [1714] the number was only 445, of whom 67 were freeholders, and 27 were negro slaves. The most extensive slaveholders in our county at that time were Baltus Van Kleeck and Dirck Wessels, who owned five slaves each. Poughkeepsie increased slowly in popula- tion ; and in 1737, when the county was assessed to build the Colonial Court House, the assessment of Poughkeepsie was less than $2,500 against $5,000 for Rhinebeck. One hundred years ago it was a hamlet of not more than 150 persons, yet it made quite a conspicuous figure in the stirring history of that time.
It was selected as one of the places in 1775, where vessels of the Continental Navy were to be built ; and here, in 1776, the frigates Congress and Montgomery were constructed under the surpervision of Captains Lawrence and Tudor. One or two fire-ships with fire-arrows were fitted out here by Captain Hazlewood, in the Summer of 1776. The frigates were not completed and armed before late in the Autumn of 1776; they were wintered at the mouth of the Rondout Creek. The Continental Navy Yard was on the site of the late Edward Southwick's tannery, near the Lower Landing. The following papers relate to the building and launching of the frigates :
In Nov., 1776, the shipwrights employed on public works at Poughkeepsie petitioned the Convention of New York for an increase of wages. Everything was advancing in price, and the wages for journeymen was 8s., and Ios. for the foreman. The lowest price they agreed to take was IIs. and a half pint of rum per day for the journeymen, and 14s. and a half pint of rum per day for the foreman.
" Yours came to hand. We advise you by all means to launch the frigates as soon as you can, and then proceed with the vessels to the place most safe in Rondout Creek, near Esopus Landing. We are sensible of the custom to give a treat to the workmen after launching, nor do we know that
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$1.oo for each is too much. We would recommend that you give it careful consideration, that you may not be blamed of extravagance, nor we of giving sanction thereto."
FROM COMMITTEE OF STATE.
At the close of February, 1776, the navigation of the Lower Hudson was unimpeded by ice, and vessels sailed freely between New York and Poughkeepsie the first week in March. Congress having ordered, as before observed, the construction of two naval vessels at Poughkeepsie, accordingly, on the 7th of March of that year, workmen and materials were conveyed to that place in a sloop from New York. Before the middle of that month, a sloop came down from Albany laden with lumber from the mills of General Schuyler at Saratoga, for the ship-yard at Poughkeepsie, and heavy cannon, and eight tons of powder and stores arrived at Albany, by a similar convey- ance, for the army in Canada. The Upper Hudson and the lakes were clear of ice early in April-a circumstance that had not occurred in many years.
Seven Tories were at one time committed to the jail at Poughkeepsie, for robbing a number of houses. They were all painted and dressed like Indian men, but it was found that five of them were women, including a mother and her two daughters.
Samuel Geake, an emissary of Sir Henry Clinton, enlisted in Captain Swartwout's Company while at Poughkeepsie, in the character of a recruit ; and, insinuating himself into the good graces of the officers of Fort Schuyler, acquired much valuable information respecting the means, designs and expec- tations of the Americans. He was suspected, arrested, tried by court martial as a spy, and condemned to death. He was spared, however, as a witness against Major Hammell, another recreant American, who accompanied him to Poughkeepsie, and who was under arrest at that time. Geake confessed that he was employed for the crime of which he was accused. He said that Major Hammell who had been taken prisoner by the British, had espoused their cause, and was promised a colonelcy
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in the British army, and that he [Geake] was to receive the commission of Lieutenant as soon as he should return to New York from Fort Schuyler.
Samuel Loudon,* of Fishkill, was State printer until he: found a rival in John Holt, who set up his press in Pough- keepsie. Holt published the New York Journal, and like Loudon, had fled to a place of safety, first to Kingston, and then to Poughkeepsie. Three days before Holt's death, in 1784, Loudon petitioned for the State printing, preferring his- claims on the following grounds :
" That your Memorialist's family is numerous and expen- sive (being twenty in number) and it will take considerable employment in the profession of a Printer, to yield them a moderate support.
"That your Memorialist has suffered much loss in the course of the War, not only by the depreciation of the Paper Money, but by the detention of both Public and Private debts, and have now to begin the world, though at an age considerably advanced.
" That your Memorialist has brought up his oldest son, a native of this [New York] City, after a liberal education, and has been taught the Printing Business, and is esteemed an accurate compositor, and that your Memorialist has a number of other good Workmen employed in the Printing Business.
"That your Memorialist printed the Journal of the Legis- lature of both Houses, while at Fishkill, and at a time when no other Printer in the State would do them, as at that time, paper was extremely dear and scarce, they were printed to the approbation of his employers, and he is now ready to print the Laws or Journals of both Houses (should it be thought eligable to give him both) on as moderate terms as the price of paper and the wages of workmen will admit."
The first preaching in DUCHESS County was probably by ministers of the Reformed Dutch Church. Two societies of that denomination were formed in the county in the year 1716, by the Rev. Peter Vas, of Kingston :- one being located at Poughkeepsie, and the other at Fishkill. These were the first organized churches in DUCHESS.
*See page 192.
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A deed of land was given in 1718, for the use of the inhab- itants of Poughkeepsie for a burial place, and plot for a meet- ing-house, wherein the worship of God was to be conducted in the Low Dutch language. The deed bears date December 26, 1718, and was acknowledged before Leonard Lewis. The ground deeded was on the corner of Main and Market Streets. The older inhabitants will remember the mean old buildings which covered that ground until the year 1830, beneath which were the remains, thickly planted, of the earlier people of Poughkeepsie. In that year these remains were removed, and the fine buildings which now cover the front of the ground were erected. The late Gilbert Brewster built several of them, and that corner of Main and Market Street was long known as " Brewster's Corner."
The entire plot was devoted to burials. As the city grew this ground was wanted for building lots. At first the desecra- tion was permitted so far as to allow the inhabitants to put buildings upon the ground, but were not allowed to have any cellars under them. In a little while, human bones began to appear about the streets, and around the dumping grounds- the people being inclined to transcend their privileges some- what, some excavating underneath their houses unobserved. Finally the ground was dug over, the bones carefully picked out, and placed in a vault to the rear of the Smith Brothers restaurant.
The first Reformed Dutch Church edifice* was built on the opposite side of Main Street ; and there, in the rear of the store, may be seen the graves and gravestones of a burial ground attached to that meeting house. It was demolished about the year 1819, when the one was erected that was burned in January, 1857, and which stood on the site of the present First Reformed Dutch Church of Poughkeepsie.
The Dutch Reformed Church in this country (the exact
* Bailey says a house of worship was built previous to this, situated south of Main Street, on this plot. It was erected about the year 1720, of stone ; it had a hipped roof. with a moderate tower in front. The tower extended above the peak of the roof a short distance, where the bell was suspended. This was surmounted with a tapering spire. The entrance was in the tower, which fronted Main Street.
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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
counterpart of that in Holland) adhered to the custom of hav- ing preaching in the Low Dutch language, with great tenacity. The first of these churches in America were planted at New York (the Nieu Amsterdam), Flatbush, Esopus and Albany. That at New York was founded at or before the year 1639. It was the established religion of the colony, until its surrender to the English in 1674, when the Church of England took its place.
The first judicatory higher than a consistency among this people was a coetus formed in 1747, with no higher object than that of advice and fraternal intercourse. The first regu- lar classis was formed in 1757, which involved the church in unhappy collisions, two powerful parties being formed within its bosom which carried on a war of words for several years, and, at times, threatened the church. It was, in a large degree, alienated from the mother church in Holland. Finally, in 1766, John H. Livingston (the father of the late Colonel Henry A. Livingston, of Poughkeepsie) went from New York to Holland, to prosecute his studies, in preparation for the min- istry, in the Dutch universities. He was then a young man ; but his representations produced a favorable disposition toward the American church. Its membership declined, in conse- quence of the persistence in preaching in the Dutch language, and Dr. Laidlic, a native of Scotland, was the first minister of that church in America, who was expressly called to preach in the English language.
Mr. Livingston was a native of Poughkeepsie, and received the degree of D. D. at Utrecht, in Holland, in 1779. During a portion of the Revolutionary war, he preached in the Dutch language in the first Dutch Reformed Church built in Pough- keepsie. He was appointed President of the college at New Brunswick, N. J., in 1807, and there spent the remainder of his life, prolonged till 1825.
There was no settled pastor over the Dutch Churches of Poughkeepsie and Fishkill for several years after their organiza- tion. They, however, enjoyed the occasional services of the
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Revs. Peter Vas, of Kingston, Gualterus Dubois, of New York, Vincentius Antonides, of Kings County, and Mr. Van Deusen, of Albany.
The first minister regularly called and settled over them was the Rev. Cornelius Van Schie, who was sent by the Classis of Amsterdam, in the year 1731, fifteen years after the churches were organized. The following persons constituted the first consistory of the Dutch church at Poughkeepsie : Elders, Peter Palmatier, and Johannis Van Kleeck; Deacons, Lawrens Van Kleeck and Myndert Vanderbogart. Van Schie was succeeded by Rev. Benjamin Meinema, whose call bears date 1745, and who remained pastor of the churches till the year 1758. The third pastor was the Rev. Jacobus Van Nist. His ministry was short, for he died in early life. He was buried in the church yard at Fishkill, where his tomb stone was accidentally discovered while some men were digging a grave.
The death of Van Nist occurred about the period of the unhappy strife between the Coetus and Conferentia parties. In 1763 the Conferentia party of Poughkeepsie, Fishkill, Hopewell, and Rhinebeck, united in sending a call to the classis of Amsterdam, to be disposed of according to its wishes. That body appointed Rev. Isaac Rysdyck pastor over the churches, who was regularly installed. On the 11th of Dec., 1769, the Coetus party presented a call to Henricus Schoon- maker, a candidate for the ministry, which call was accepted. So vehement was the opposition of the opposing faction to Mr. Schoonmaker, that at the time of his installation in Pough- keepsie, they forcibly closed the doors against him, and the services took place under an old apple-tree not far distant from the present site of the First Dutch Church. Peace being again restored, Mr. Rysdyck relinquished his charge of the church in Poughkeepsie, and confined himself mainly to the care of the churches of New Hackensack, Hopewell, and Fishkill, until his death, which occurred November 2nd, 1790. He died very suddenly, from paralysis. The congregation had
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assembled that morning for services, when a messenger arrived and informed them that Rysdyck was dead. He was found alone in his room, with his completed manuscript sermon before him. His remains were placed beneath the floor in front of the pulpit (an ancient Dutch custom) in the old church at New Hackensack. When the old edifice was taken down in 1834, they were removed to the burying ground.
In the year 1800, a few Baptists began to meet for social worship in this place. They had but little preaching. Mr. Pal.ner was one of their first preichers. A council met at George Parker's, June 10th, 1807, and organized a church of 16 members. Francis Wayland, Sen., was their first pastor, who remained with them four years, during which time they built a house of worship. Rev. John Lawson, a missionary, when on his way to India, preached for them some time. He
Old Quaker Church, Mill Strect.
was succeeded by Lewis Leonard, of Massachusetts. In 1815 a Convention met with them at their request, and organized the Hudson River Association .*
Aaron Parker succeeded Leonard as pastor, remaining one year. Their next pastor was Rufus Babcock, Jr., who was ordained with them. He continued there three years and was much esteemed. He was succeeded by R. W. Cushman, and Hutchinson. In 1826, Rev. A. Perkins returned, and was their pastor four years. In 1839, the church again obtained the services of Rufus Babcock, D. D., who served them as
* This asssociation at one time numbered over 12,000 members.
W.
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pastor three years more with abundant success, when he resigned to engage in the important duties of Corresponding. Secretary of the American and Foreign Bible Society. Their house of worship, which had just then been erected, cost $20,000, one half of which was given by Mathew Vassar, a member of the congregation. Thomas S. Ranney and wife, Missionaries to Birmah, were for several years members of this church.
An aged resident mentions an old Methodist Meeting House-probably the first of that denomination in Poughkeep- sie-which at one time stood in the vicinity of the burying ground between Main Street dock and the Lower Landing It was a plain edifice, and unpainted ; it had no steeple, and was never finished on the inside.
The cemetery north of Poughkeepsie, on the Hyde Park road, was the ground used by the Reformed Dutch Church and society for burial purposes, after the old grounds on Market street were given up. Here may be seen the monu- ments of some of the oldest residents. Near the southern borders of the city, below Montgomery street, is the old Episcopal burying ground. Elegant residences are springing up around it ; and the hurry and bustle of the busy throng contrast strangely with the solemn stillness of the sacred enclosure. Here, too are monuments marking the resting place of the ancient buried dead, shaded by venerable trees, and hidden by dense underbrush.
During the week ending Nov. 4, 1806, at a Court held in the village of Poughkeepsie, Judge Daniel D. Tompkins pre- siding, Jesse Wood was tried and convicted for the murder of his son, Joseph Wood, and sentenced to be executed on the 5th of the following December. The circumstances attending the murder were these : Joseph and his brother were engaged in a quarrel. The dispute rose to such a pitch that Joseph shot his brother, fatally wounding him. The father hearing the report of the gun, hastened to the scene and found one of them upon the ground bleeding, and Joseph standing over him with
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a gun. The father snatched the weapon away, and each tried to assist the wounded brother. In this position they were dis- covered by other parties, and the brother soon expired. At the trial Joseph accused his father of having committed the deed, and the father as strenuously accused the son. The wounded brother was unable to tell which was the guilty one ; and as the father had the gun in his hand when first seen, the preponderance of evidence was against him, and he was exe- cuted. Joseph some years after, when on his death bed, con- fessed that he himself was the murderer, and that his father was innocent of the crime for which he was hung. A man named
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Court House.
Shaffer was tried about the same time, having murdered his sister by splitting her skull open with an ax. The evidence being conclusive, he too was sentenced to suffer the extreme penalty of the law.
Executions in those days took place in public, and were made the occasions of a general gathering of the people for miles around. The gallows on which Shaffer and Wood were hung was erected on the grounds a short distance below the southern terminus of South Hamilton street, between the resi- dence of Hon. J. O. Whitehouse and Springside. Thousands upon thousands were present, covering all the surrounding elevations.
The morning of the execution opened bright and clear. Joseph Thorn, Sheriff of DUCHESS County, had previously is- sued an order to Capt. Slee, directing him to parade his com- pany of artillery, for the purpose of escorting the condemned
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to the place of execution. At about 10 o'clock, the Sheriff entered the cell of the prisoners, which was on the lower floor of the old court house, where he found them in charge of their spiritual advisers, and apparently resigned to their fate. After securing their limbs to prevent their escape, the Sheriff led them forth into the corridor, where they were permitted to take final leave of their friends. Then, accompanied by the minis- ters, they were taken outside, placed in a close carriage, and driven to the scaffold.
The prisoners approached the fatal instrument with a firm step, and retained their nerve to the last. Everything being in readiness, the condemned were at once placed upon the gal- lo:s, which was of the old drop style. Jesse Wood, to the last, persisted in declaring his innocence; and the spectators were greatly shocked at this apparent hardened iniquity in giving ut- terance to what they supposed a falsehood at the very threshold of eternity. The death warrant was read to the condemned, followed by prayer by the clergymen. After being permitted to shake hands with those who accompanied them, the black cap was drawn, and they were launched into another world. We believe these to have been the last public executions in DUCHESS County.
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