USA > New York > Dutchess County > General history of Duchess County from 1609 to 1876, inclusive > Part 8
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* Dunlap's Hist. N. Y.
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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
ten, James Husey, Roger Brett, Peter De Boyes, Isaac Hen- dricks, Jehu Breines, Jeury Sprinstan, Peck De Wit, Adaam Van Alssed, Cellitie Kool, Harmen Knickerbocker, Johanis Dyckman, Sienjar, Jacob Hoghtslingh, Dirck Wesselse, Wil- liam Schott, Jacob Vosburgh, Tunis Pieterse, Hendrick Bret- siert, Roelif Duytser, Johannis Spoor, Junjoor, Abraham Vosburgh, Abraham Van Dusen, Willem Wijt, Lauwerens Knickerbocker, Hendrick Sissum, Aenderis Gerdener, Gysbert Oosterheut, Johannis Dyckerman, Junjor. The intelligent reader will readily distinguish, in the quaint orthography of the above list, many of the family names of the present time.
French's Gazetteer says of this county: "The most important articles of manufacture are cotton and woolen goods, prints, iron ware, flour, malt liquors, cordage, leather, oil, paper, &c. Its manufactured products in 1845 exceeded $25.000,000."
This County, now so populous and opulent, was assessed in the year 1702 below any other, contributing only £18 to a general tax of £2,000.
In 1729 the County was thus described : "The south part is mountainous, and fit only for iron works ; but the rest con- tains a great quantity of good upland, well watered. The only villages in it are Poughkeepsie and Fishkill, though they scarcely deserve the name. There is no Episcopal Church in it. The growth of this county has been very sudden, and commenced but a few years ago. Within the memory of persons now living, it did not contain twelve families ; and according to the late returns of the Militia, it will furnish at present about 2500 fighting men."
In 1723 its population was 1,083 ; in 1737, 3,418 ; in 1746, 8,806 ; in 1771, 22.404.
On the 27th of May, 1775, a Provincial Congress * was convened at New York, and efficient measures immediately taken for the military organization and defense of the country.
* Upon the adjonrament of this Congress in September, for a month. they delegated their powers to a Committee of Safety. composed of three members from the city and county of New York, and one from each of the other counties. Thus it must have consisted of 16 members.
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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
Two regiments were authorized to be raised, bounties offered for the manufacture of gunpowder and muskets in the province, and fortifications were projected at Kingsbridge and the High- lands.
July 6th, 1776, the Provincial Congress met at White Plains and took the title of "The Representatives of the State of New York." On the first day of the meeting they received the Declaration of Independence, and immediately passed a resolution approving it. Soon after they enacted a law, that all persons residing in the State, and enjoying the protection of its laws, who should be found guilty of siding with its enemies, should suffer death.
Their deliberations were conducted under constant excite- ment and alarm, and their places of meeting were continually changing. From New York they moved to Harlem, King's Bridge, Yonkers, White Plains, Fishkill, Kingston and Pough- keepsie, and in 1784 returned to New York. Two sessions were afterwards held at Poughkeepsie, and three at Albany, before the final removal to the latter place in 1797. In March, 1778, a concurrent resolution directed the Secretary of State and the Clerks of the Counties to put their records into strong and light enclosures, to be ready for instant removal in case of danger.
A court house and jail were first ordered to be built at Poughkeepsie July 21st, 1715, for the use of the County, but they do not appear to have been completed until nearly thirty years afterwards. In 1760, an act authorized the conversion of a jury room into a jail, and four years after money was raised to complete the arrangement. The act of April IIth, 1785, appropriated the sum of £15,000 to re-construct the building, which had been destroyed by fire, and Cornelius. Humphrey, Peter Tappen, and Gilbert Livingston were appoint- ed a building committee. A further tax of £2000 was ordered in 1786, and another of £1300 in 1787. In the meantime prisoners were sent to the Ulster County jail. By act of March 19th, 1778, the Sheriff's mileage was reckoned.
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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
from the house of Myndert Vielle, in Beekmans Precinct.
The buildings were again destroyed by fire on the night of September 25th, 1808; the prisoners were removed to the Farmers' Hotel, and the courts held sessions in the Reformed Dutch Church.
The act for the construction of the present building was passed March 24th, 1809, and $12,000 was raised for that purpose. James Talmadge, John B. Van Wyck and John Van Benthuysen were appointed building commissioners. The next year $15,000 additional was raised. and the building was soon after completed. It contains the court-room, clerk's office, and all the usual county offices, except that of surrogate, which is in a small building adjacent. A new jail was built separate from the court house about the year 1860.
In March, 1807, a bill was introduced into the Legislature to divide DUCHESS County. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of sixteen to thirteen, but it was rejected in the Assembly by a vote of forty-eight to forty-seven. In a motion to recon- sider the vote stood forty-nine to forty-nine, but the speaker voting in the negative the motion was lost, and DUCHESS County was not divided until five years afterwards. After an interval of several years a line, called the Philips and Robin son's Line, was surveyed through DUCHESS County, two miles north of the Putnam County line, and parallel with it, and an attempt made to extend the latter County to that line ; but the measure proved a failure.
By act of April 11th. 1808, semi-annual fairs of sale were directed to be held in this County, under the management of five commissioners, to be appointed by the Judges of Common Pleas. These fairs were to be supported by a tax of one per cent on all sales, one-half to be paid by the purchaser, and one-half by the seller.
At a meeting of the Supervisors, held in January, ;1721, among the items of expense allowed are the following : To Trynte Van Kleek, widow, for victualling the assessors and
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supervisors, 9s. To Jacobus Vander Bogart, Esq., for the assessors and for horse fodder, 3S.
In the list of expenses allowed at a session of supervisors and assessors in 1726, the following are among the items allowed : To Col. Leonard Lewis, for three gallons of rum for assessors and supervisors, at two meetings, at 5s per gallon. 15s. To Widow Vander Bogart, for victualling assessors and supervisors, and clerk, and sider furnished, £1 75. To Hen- drick Bass, for destroying a wolf, allowed in the act, 6s. To Harmanus Reynders, for tending and waiting on the justices and assessors and supervisors, clerk. is allowed for a year's service, £2. To Cornelius Vander Bogart, Collected for two people that ran away out of his tax list last year. which he did not receive, their taxes in all, IOS.
" The burning of a white man and negro for incendiarism, which took place in Market Street about a century ago, was witnessed by a large concourse of people. The horrors of the scene were indescribable; it seemed as if the sufferers never would die, but continued their screams of agony longer than it seemed possible for any one to live under the circumstances. After the fuel under them had been nearly exhausted, and their charred and half consumed bodies had fallen among the coals and ashes, the negro's jaws continued to open and shut, as ir yawning. for some minutes, as the people crowded around to witness the end."
" But there was another scene of horror which took place in Poughkeepsie in the early part of the Revolution, which ex- ceeded, if possible, the burning above alluded to. Two boys from Fishkill, only about sixteen years of age, were arrested as spies. Being without friends, they were undefended ; were tried and condemned to be hung, and were actually executed on Forbus Hill."
" The trial and execution of an unfortunate man from Beekman, named Brock, which took place about 1770, is too melancholy to dwell upon. He, too, was poor and friendless; and was arrested for passing a counterfeit hard dollar, which it
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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
was proved had been given him. At the trial he had no defense, and he was found guilty, and sentenced to be hung, and his body delivered to the surgeons for dissection ; all of which took place at Poughkeepsie."
TRAVEL AND POST ROUTES.
The only post road in the State in 1789 was between New York and Albany, running through Fishkill, Poughkeepsie and Rhinebeck, and the number of post-offices in the State was only seven.
In an old N. Y. City paper, bearing date Oct. 2d, 1797, occurs the following advertisement : "Vermont stages [mail and passenger] will leave New York every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning, at 8 o'clock, run to Bedford the first day, the second to Dover, the third to Stockbridge, and fourth to Bennington, Vermont. Fare of each passenger five cents per mile." Thus it appears that Duchess early enjoyed the privilege of two mail routes, extending through its eastern and its western borders, communicating with New York City.
Letters-the few that were written-were mainly carried by private hands. Newspapers-from Hartford and Pough- keepsie-were carried by post-riders on horseback. Such was the custom within the recollection of many of our old residents.
Under the caption " New Mail Route," an old copy of the Poughkeepsie Observer has the following :- " Proposals will be received by the Post Master General, until the 27th of September, 1817, for carrying the mail once a week from Poughkeepsie to New Milford, (Conn.) via Beekman, Pawling, &c.
Elihu Stewart, familiarly called Captain Stewart, father of Elihu Stewart, Esq., of Sherman, Conn .. was the successful bidder. He was succeeded by one Page, who conducted the route until he failed, when Stewart again resumed charge of it. At this time the mails were carried through three times each way, every week. Finally a Mr. Butler took the contract,
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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
agreeing to carry the mail from New Milford to Poughkeepsie and return each day, a distance of nearly seventy miles, over a very mountainous road. Though frequent relays of horses were provided, this was found to be hardly practicable, and several horses were killed on the road before the plan was discontinued. Butler was succeeded by McKibbin, who con- tinued on the route until the completion of the Harlem Rail- road to Dover Plains. The old Poughquag Tavern (now the residence of Daniel Thomas, Esq.,) was called the half-way house, where man and beast were refreshed.
THE SHARON CANAL.
About the year 1821, the New York and Sharon Canal was projected, Many enterprising men took a lively interest in it, though some looked upon it as a visionary scheme. The canal was proposed to be constructed from Sharon Valley down by the Oblong River, and by the Swamp River, to the sources of the Croton in Pawling, and by the Croton either to the Hudson or the Harlem River. The Harlem Railroad runs over very nearly the route proposed for the canal. An extension of the canal north through Salisbury to Great Barrington, in Massa- chusetts, was also contemplated. The preliminary survey was made, and about sixty thousand dollars contributed. This money was deposited with a broker in New York, who failed. This so discouraged the managers that the project was abandoned.
In 1826 the project seems to have been renewed, and and a Report of the Canal Commissioners was made to the Legislature, of surveys and estimates by an engineer employed by the Commissioners. The estimated cost of the Canal to the Hudson was $599,232 ; and by the route to the Harlem it was $1,232,169. This included the whole expense of excavation, aqueducts, locks, bridges, and everything essential to the completion of the work. A survey was made of ponds and streams which could be made to supply the canal with water, and an estimate given of the amount of transportation that
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might be expected. We have no record of the project after this. Cyrus Swan, of Sharon; Joel Benton and Thomas Barlow, of Amenia; William Tabor, of Pawling ; and Mark Spencer, of Amenia, were among the projectors of this enter- prise.
SOIL, CLIMATE, ETC.
The soil is in general a fine quality of sandy and gravelly loam. Upon the hills it is in some places, composed of disintegrated slate ; and upon the Hudson River intervales it is a deep rich alluvium. The richness and variety of its soil, and its proximity to the New York market, insure a rich return for all agricultural labor ; and it ranks foremost among the various counties in the State. In cultivated area it is excelled only by Jefferson, Oneida, Otsego and St. Lawrence ; and in cash value of farms by Monroe and Westchester only. Farm- ing is of a mixed character, all branches being successfully pursued. Owing to the facilities afforded by the network of railroads throughout the County, the sending of milk to New York has become an important branch of business. That part of the County along the Hudson has considerable ornamental farming and gardening, where are the country seats of men of opulence.
Owing to its somewhat elevated position, the climate of the County is colder than in some of the adjacent counties of the same latitude.
A considerable amount of manufacturing is carried on, the principal establishments being located in Poughkeepsie and Fishkill. The commerce by means of the Hudson is extensive. In 1850, whale fishing was prosecuted here to a considerable extent, several large ships being employed. About that time eight or ten steamboats, and a considerable number of sloops, schooners and barges, were employed in the coasting trade.
The following facts may interest the general reader :- In 1687 the Governor and Council levied a tax of half a penny
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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
on every pound out of the estates of the freeholders of DUCHESS County.
A further act was passed Sept. 10th, 1692, "To raise 80 men out of DUCHESS and Ulster to protect Albany from Indians during the winter." In 1713 empowered DUCHESS to elect a Supervisor, Assessor and Collector.
Previous to 1718 no records were kept in DUCHESS County. Whatever records may have been kept are lost. None are to be found in Ulster County.
The cities of Newburgh and Po'keepsie now contain more inhabitants than the whole State of New York in 1695. In 1723 there were 195 taxable inhabitants in DUCHESS County.
AMENIA.
POPULATION, 2,700. SQUARE ACRES, 84,568.
MENIA is one of the original towns formed by act of March 7, 1788. It comprises the width of the Oblong tract, and the east tier of lots in the Great Nine Partners.
The origin of the name is too obscure to venture even a guess upon. It is noticeable from the fact that it is the only locality bearing the name in the whole country. Young, a minor American poet, applies this term in his "Conquest of Quebec," in a description of the several provincial troops em- ployed in that campaign.
The Taghkanick Mountains extend along the east border, and the Highlands belonging to the Fishkill Range extend through the west part. The wide valley separating these two ranges occupies the central portions. The declivities of the mountains are often steep and sometimes rocky, and their highest summits often reach the altitude of 300 to 500 feet above the valleys. Amenia Station is 500 feet above tide water. The soil is a clayey and sandy loam.
The principal streams are the Weebutook or Ten Mile
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River, Wassaic Creek, and West Brook, and their branches. A low range of limestone, hard and brittle, of a bluish color, considerably disintegrated where it crops out, extends north and south through the valley. Near the village of Wassaic are striking evidences of geological changes in the far-off æons of the world's infancy. The bed of the valley is a succession of low hills that were washed up by the waters of some Paleozoic Lake, that at one time filled the valley. Dig into the sandhills and you will see the works of the waves left in the ripples of the sand.
A gentleman who had travelled extensively in Europe, said he never saw a lovelier valley than that of Amenia. No country affords finer contrasts of mountain, hill, ravine, wood and cultivated plain. All its approaches from the west are beside streams, through gorges, up and down steep declivities as wild and varied as those of far-famed Switzerland. The contrast between the fairness of a clear Summer afternoon and a ragged thunder storm in the night is not greater than that of the fair fields of Lithgow, and the stern, dark mountains and fearful ruggedness of Deep Hollow.
Amenia Village, The City, Wassaic, Amenia Union, South Amenia, Leedsville, and Sharon Station are post villages.
Richard Sackett was here several years before any other settlement was made, probably about the year 1711. He located at the "Steel Works," about one mile south of the village of Wassaic, so called because a furnace and foundry were established there during the Revolution, to manufacture steel for the use of the army. The site of the works is still covered by coal dust and cinders. Mr. Sackett was connected with the Livingstons in the settlement of the Palatinates at German or East Camp, now Germantown, Columbia County. In the Colonial Records we read : " March 11, 1703, Richard Sackett petitioned government for license to purchase (of the Indians) a tract of land in DUCHESS County, east of Hudson's River, called Washiack." "Oct. 20, 1703, license granted." "Nov. 2, 1704, patent granted to Richard Sackett & Co., for
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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
said land, containing about 7,500 acres, or thereabouts." Mr. Sackett was one of the company known as the Little Nine Partners. He died in 1746, and was buried on the hill, in a little cemetery not far from his residence. At the time that he established his family in Amenia, there was not another white family nearer than Poughkeepsie, or Woodbury and New Mil- ford, in Connecticut.
Uldrick Winegar and his son, Capt. Garrett Winegar, were the next settlers. They were of the Palatinates at East Camp, and located at Amenia Union about the year 1724, where they entered upon land without any title, except from the Indians. Afterward, when the Oblong was confirmed to New York, and surveyed, he received a title from the proprietors of that tract. It is worthy of note that no mention is made of any block- house, or any defense against the Indians, put up by these early settlers, though isolated for many years from any other white settlements ; while in Litchfield, between 1720 and 1730, there were five houses sur- rounded by palisades, and soldiers were stationed there to guard the inhab- itants while at work, and at worship on the Sabbath. Uldrick died in 1754, at The Winegar House. the age of 102 years, and Garrett the year following. Their graves and those of many of their descendants are in that beautiful burial ground near Amenia Union.
Hendrick Winegar, the oldest son of Capt. Garrett, resided for several years at the foot of the West Mountain ; in 1761 he built the large stone and brick house a short distance west of Amenia Union. He was ancestor of the families of that name in Kent, Conn.
The Rows, likewise Germans, are believed to have been of the Palatinates, and settled near Amenia Union, soon after the Winegars, and previous to 1731. Henry Nase settled below
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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
them, near the town line. His memorial stone. in the cemetery at Dover, says :- " Henry Nase, born in High Germany, died Dec. 14, 1759, about 64 years old." The old houses, built by these early settlers, of which there were as many as seven or eight near Amenia Union at the beginning of the present cen- tury, were objects of special interest. The Delamaters were French Huguenots, and settled here previous to 1740.
The first highway from Salisbury was from Weatague through Lakeville, Ore Hill, Sharon Valley, and Sackett's Farm in Dover, showing the intercourse of these Dutch families. The first important immigration to this town was not until the year 1740, and it appears that ten years afterward the popula- tion was sufficient to encourage the people to institute public worship in three places.
In the journal of Abraham Rhinke, one of the Moravian Missionaries, who preached at "Nine Partners and the Oblong" in 1753, he says :- " The people came here five years ago in expectation of bettering their fortunes by the purchase of cheap farms, and for the enjoyment of religious liberty." From this it would appear that the influx of population was about the year 1748; and it also affords an idea of the sentiment of freedom in religion, entertained by the early settlers.
At the time of settlement a remnant of the Pequod Indians had a village in the northeast part of the town,* called Wech- quadnach, on the west side of Indian Pond. Some Moravian missionaries began to labor with them about the year 1740, with evident success ; but so annoyed were they by the officers of the Colonial Government, that in a few years they were driven out of the State. These Christian laborers were charged with being Jesuits, and emissaries of the French. Although the charge proved groundless, it may be some palliation of the jealousy of the Colonists, that the French were sending their emissaries among the Indians in other quarters to incite them against their English neighbors. It should be noted that it was not the local authorities that suspected the peaceable savages,
* The town limits, or rather the precinet limits, have been since changed.
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for they were held in the highest esteem by the whites. After- ward, one of the Moravians, Rev. Joseph Powell, ministered to a congregation near Indian Pond. He died in 1774, and was interred, with some of his people, in the burial ground near their house of worship. A more extended account of the Moravians in DUCHESS County is given in the chapter on Pine Plains.
Several Indian burial places are spoken of in tradition : one on the lands of Myron B. Benton ; another near Amasa D. Coleman's, still the burial place of families in the vicinity. At a place by the river called the " Nook," near South Amenia, the Indians were accustomed to hold their noisy pow-wows. There were a few wigwams near the outlet of Swift's Pond.
Amenia is topographically divided into three valleys. In early times each valley had its separate place of worship, each church being of the same order-Presbyterian or Congrega- tional. The oldest was organized near the centre of the town, and was named "Carmel, in the Nine Partners." In 1750, Abraham Paine, Jun., "was set apart to the work of the min- istry by solemn ordination by laying on the hands of the Pres- bytery, and by the power of the Holy Ghost." Mr. Paine and some of his church soon became affected with the notions of the " New Lights," or " Separatists," which lead to some disa- greement with the more conservative of the congregation. The house of worship known as the "Red Meeting House" was built in 1758, and stood about a mile northeast of the village of Amenia, near the burying ground. It was a square building, two stories high, with a gallery on three sides, and seated with square pews. This house was built and afterwards repaired by contributions from persons not strict adherents to the Congregational polity, and was occupied harmoniously in later years by the Congregationalists, Baptists and Methodists. In the Summer of 1770, the celebrated Whitefield preached in the Red Meeting House to the crowds that followed him all the country round. Elder Elijah Wood, a Baptist, was the acceptable minister of the congregation for several years. In
h
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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
the early part of the present century the line was gradually drawn between the three denominations, and each sustained a separate organization. In 1811, this church was connectedd with the associated Presbytery of Westchester, and in 1815 with the Presbytery of North River. In the same year Rev. Joel Osborne became pastor, giving to the church one-third of the time.
The congregation in the Oblong Valley, known as the Oblong Society, was made up partly of families living in Con- necticut, the church edifice being located at Amenia Union. about twenty yards west of the colony line. It was a capacious.
The Round Top Meeting House (Restored).
building, with galleries, and with doors on three sides. The roof had four sides, terminating at the top in an ornamental cupola, which gave it the name of " The Round Top Meeting House." It was built in 1755, and in 1786 it was taken down and another erected near where the present church edifice stands. The society was organized in 1759,* seventeen years before the Revolution, twenty-nine years before the organiza- tion of the town, and about ten or fifteen years after the prin- cipal settlements had been made. Palatinates and Huguenots.
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