History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 19

Author: Smith, James H. (James Hadden); Cale, Hume H; Roscoe, William E
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 868

USA > New York > Dutchess County > History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 19

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MINERAL SPRINGS-SUBTERRANEAN STREAMS.

limonite, unless they flow into a stream so as to prevent a deposition of the ferruginous matter. Near Upton's Pond in Stanford, Prof. Merrick examined a small chalybeate spring from which an unusual quantity of iron ore was deposited. A chalybeate spring is said to flow from the base of Barker's Mountain, half a mile north-west of Kline's Corners, in Amenia.

A small sulphur spring flows from the base of the mountain one and one-fourth miles north- north- west of Ameniaville, on the Thomas Ingraham place ; but its odor was so slight as to require the water to be taken into the mouth to perceive that it was sulphureted. It has some reputation for the cures effected by it. On the premises of Capt. Thomas S. Loyd, near South Clinton street, in the city of Poughkeepsie, is a mineral spring which was found by digging about thirty feet through the rock. Its medicinal qualities, which were discov- ered by accident, have been known to a few per- sons for several years, and many have been bene- fited by it, but they were not made public until 1877. "The water is transparent and brilliant, and has no odor or taste. It is äerated to an un- common degree, and gases held in solution render it delicious and refreshing." A gallon of this water (231 cubic inches) contains twenty-two grains of mineral matter, dried at 212º F., consisting of soda, lime, magnesia, silicic acid, chlorine, carbonic acid and sulphate of potash, as determined by Prof. Chandler, of Columbia College. It has received the name of "Crystal Spring ;" and persons suf- fering from rheumatism, dyspepsia, kidney diseases, etc., have been benefited by the use of its waters .*

On the Isaac Smith farm, a mile south-east of Judge Bockee's in North East, a gas spring issues near the limestone, on the great axis of disturb- ance on which the gaseous and thermal springs of the eastern counties of New York are situated. Gas is said to bubble up through the fountain, which never freezes. A gas spring also rises in the bed of a small stream about a quarter of a mile from Ameniaville, towards Poughkeepsie, and in another near the roadside, where the ground was covered by water, the constant rise of bubbles of gas was observed for some time. These locali- ties were in the valley west of Amenia, and the gas issued from the gravel beds over or near the junction of the talcy slate with the limestone, and between the Amenia ore beds of limonite and those at a place called the Squabble-hole ore beds.

There are several subterranean streams in the county. Cold Spring, south-west of Stissing Mountain, flows from the base of a limestone ridge, in a brook large enough to carry a mill, and is generally reputed to be the subterranean outlet of a small lake at the base of Mt. Stissing, which has no visible outlet. The Clove Spring in Union Vale, which is supposed to discharge from twenty to thirty barrels of very limpid water per minute, is another instance. Another occurs at low water mark on the bank of the Hudson, a half or three- fourths of a mile north of Clinton Point ; another flows from the side of the post road, a quarter of a mile north of the crossing of the Casper hill ; and still another on the Judge Bockee farnı in North East, which discharges about twenty cubic feet of water per minute. The water is very clear, and uniform in temperature throughout the year. In Pine Plains are several large springs. Two are located on the Walter Reynolds farm, about three miles east of Pine Plains. Both are in fact sub- terranean streams, which sink into the earth and re-appear. The large stream disappears in a sink- hole, in the base of the hill on the north side of the road from Pine Plains to Pulver's Corners, and re-appears as a large spring boiling up through sand about a quarter of a mile south-west of the place of its disappearance. The road crosses the subterranean stream. There is a sink-hole on the line between these places, where the earth sank in some years ago. Another stream vanishes and re- appears twice south of the above, and a line of sink-holes indicates the line of the subterranean stream.

An inflammable gas, very pure, rises from the bottom of a small lake in the town of North East .* At the mineral springs bored for McCul- loch's brewery, carburetted hydrogen is evolved.t

Sulphate of iron was observed in small quanti- ties efflorescing on mica slate, about two miles south-west of Ameniaville, on the east side of the mountain, near an old excavation made with the expectation of finding coal ; also four miles south of Ameniaville, at the south side of Barker's Moun- tain, on mica slate; about two miles south of Poughkeepsie, on the shore of the Hudson, where an excavation and boring had been made in search of coal in the black shale of the Hudson River group of rocks. At all these localities the bisul- phuret of iron was disseminated through the rocks.

* Poughkeepsie Weekly Eagle, May 26, 1877.

* Ackerly. Geology of the Hudson. Cleveland's Mineralogy, 483.

1 Prof. L. C. Beck, New York Geological Report, 1838, 41,

HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

Bog ore occurs in a meadow two miles west of Pine Plains ; at Poughquaick in Beekman, and other places in the county, but not in sufficient quantity to be of much value.

The quarternary deposits embrace the clay, sand and gravel beds of the valleys of the Hudson and its tributaries. Some boulders and drift deposits overlie this formation ; but the main drift deposit that is usually called diluvion, erratic block group, boulder system, etc., underlies it.

A belt of the quarternary formation, mostly clay, but in some places sand and gravel, extends with irregular width south through Red Hook and Rhinebeck. Branches or arms, like bays, of this formation are found in the valleys of all the streams which cross it. It is interspersed with rocky islands. Another deposit extends from Pine Plains down Wappinger Creek, and up some of its branches. The drainage that now finds its outlet through Ancram Creek, probably flowed in former times through Wappinger Creek. Another oc- cupies a part of the valley of Oblong Creek in .North East and Amenia; another forms the plains in Dover and extends south up the valleys of the streams that flow from Pawling into Ten Mile River. Other deposits of similar character occur on Fishkill Creek and its tributaries, in Fishkill, East Fishkill, Beekman, La Grange and Union Vale ; on Wappinger Creek and its tributaries, in La Grange, Pleasant Valley, Washington and Clin- ton ; and perhaps this may be connected with the same formation about Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park, and with the main mass of the quarternary forma- tion that was described as terminating in the lower part of Rhinebeck. A small patch of the quarter- nary occurs on and near the shore of the Hudson, between the mouth of Fishkill Creek and the point of Breakneck Mountain. The sand beds of this formation in this part of the Hudson Valley do not cover extensive areas with loose deep sands that drift, or make the traveling over them tedious, like the sand plains of Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga counties and other localities north and south. The clay lands of the same formation oc- cupy a narrow belt near the Hudson to Fishkill. Where the sand occurs it is uniformly above the clay beds, and generally covers the plains that divide the waters of the creek and smaller streams. The brick manufactures of the Hudson Valley, to which these deposits give life, are a most important industry. In 1843, there were made within the county 15,700,000 bricks ; at present, the seven firms at Denning's Point, the principal seat of

manufacture, produce nearly treble that quantity- 44,500,000. We have no data as to extent of manufacture elsewhere in the county, except in Poughkeepsie, which, in 1843, was the principal seat of manufacture, (7,900,000) while at present it produces from two yards, the only ones now engaged in the business, about 32,000 per day.

From the character of these quarternary deposits it is evident that a vast inland sea once occupied the basin of the Hudson valley, since the period of the drift deposits ; that the water level has changed in this area, and as the ocean maintains its equilib- rium, this vast tract of country has been elevated in mass with little relative change in height, but to an absolute height of 300 to 1,000 feet above its former level; and that this elevation has probably been effected in a short time, and caused strong currents to flow through the channels communicat- ing with the ocean, and through which the waters have been drained to their present levels, deposit- ing beds of sand, gravel, pebbles and boulders in the eddies.

The drift deposits of the Hudson Valley are found lying upon the naked rocks of all the forma- tions that are consolidated. They are covered to a greater or less extent in the large valleys by dep- ositions of clay, gravel and sand, up to a certain level, at which the water remained for a considera- ble period. The drift depositions occupy situations much higher in absolute level than the quarternary, and in the valleys also are found at lower levels. They were undoubtedly transported by water, and this would show that the waters occupied a higher level, or that the surface was relatively less elevated at the drift, than at the quarternary period. They are composed of fragments of all the primary rocks exposed to the action of the causes that contrib- uted to their transportation and deposition. They are mostly coarse, composed of blocks, boulders, pebbles, gravel and sand, sometimes loose, but fre- Quently aggregated by argillaceous matter.

The topographical features of this formation are somewhat peculiar. In this vicinity, where it is well exposed to view, it is very hilly and irregular, and is composed of round-backed hillocks with bowl-shaped cavities or valleys between them. These little hillocks are entirely composed of boulders, rounded pebbles, gravel and sand. They may be seen in the valley that extends south from Fishkill, and in most of the elevated valleys through which currents seem to have flowed, when the water was elevated some hundred feet above its present level. The same kind of diluvial hill-

BOULDERS AND ERRATIC BLOCKS-SCRATCHED ROCKS.

ocks are in the valley of Wappinger Creek, between Fishkill and Poughkeepsie ; in the valley between Ameniaville and the furnace four miles south ; along the east part of East Fishkill, near the base of the mountains, near Shenandoah and Stormville. It is only when the drift deposits have a considerable thickness, that the hilly character of the drift is observed. When it is thin it does not give any marked character to the country, but serves to fill up the irregularities that would other- wise exist upon the rocky surface, and give a smoother outline.

Boulders and erratic blocks are rounded masses of rock that are supposed to have been worn to their rounded forms by attrition, though many of the large rounded masses called boulders, have received their forms by the atmospheric causes producing disintegration. It is not doubted, how- ever, that the banks of rounded masses of rock, pebbles and gravel indicate the action and trans- porting power of water. The terms by which they are designated imply that they are more or less removed from the place where their characteristics are found in situ. They are loose masses spread over or embedded in the soil, and frequently they are different from the rocks in place in the vicin- ity; but it is observed, as a general rule, that the larger masses and blocks are nearer their parent sources, while they diminish in size as they are more remote from them. They are scattered not only over the valleys, plains and hills of moderate elevation, but are found on the peaks of high mountains.

The Fishkill valley contains boulders and peb- bles of all the varieties of the Hudson slate rocks and the Taconic series that occur in the Hudson and Champlain valley as far north as Whitehall. The Potsdam sandstone is the hardest of these rocks, except quartz, and the pebbles of these two rocks are most abundant. The Potsdam sandstone pebbles are like the sandstone of Whitehall and Fort Ann, and the quartz is mostly like that in veins in the slaty rocks in Hillsdale, Taconic, Canaan, Austerlitz, Chatham and New Lebanon, being generally white milky quartz, frequently containing chlorite, brown spar, and sometimes carbonate of iron, carbonate of lime, and quartz crystals. The brown spar is frequently decomposed, leaving earthy oxide of manganese in the cavities. The aspect of this quartz, together with the association of minerals, is so peculiar as to leave no doubt of the parent source of these pebbles. In the vicinity of Poughquaick a large share of the boulders are of

limestone, mixed with those of quartzose gneiss. Many of the limestone boulders are vesicular, from partial disintegration. After crossing Fishkill Creek to the west there was a change in the boulders and pebbles. The limestone boulders are darker color- ed, more siliceous, and are evidently from a differ- ent stratum. The quartz boulders are also darker and more abundant, and bear a strong resem- blance to those found in the vicinity of the primi- tive argillite. On the range of hills between Fishkill and Sprout Creeks, in La Grange, the boulders are of those rocks peculiar to the primi- tive argillite region, consisting principally of milky and brown quartz, with chlorite occasionally adhering.

About three-fourths of a mile north of Clinton Point, near the shore of the Hudson, the quarter- nary yellow and blue clays occupy a small valley. In the lower part of the blue clay, pebbles and boulders of quartz and of grit rock of the Hudson slate series are imbedded, and they seem to have been deposited while the clay was also being de- posited ; the boulders and pebbles are in many in- stances smooth and scratched. On the mountains between Hurd's Corners, in Pawling, and Beekman, which are mostly mica slate and gneiss, Prof. Cas- sels observed a great number of granite boulders ; also on the east side of the Dover and Croton val- leys in Pawling. In Stanford, south of Mt. Stissing, are numerous boulders of granite and gneissoid rocks, like those of that mountain ; also a hard siliceous rock-like granular quartz, which is iden- tical with a similar rock at the south end of the mountain overlying the primary rocks, and underlying the limestone of the valley of Wap- pinger Creek. This siliceous rock is believed to be the same as the Potsdam sandstone of Prof. Emmons.

Numerous examples of smooth and scratched surfaces of rocks, some of them very distinct, were observed in various parts of the county. These phenomena indicate that, at some former time, the county, to the tops of the high mountains, was cov- ered with water, and that strong currents flowed through the Hudson valley. It is probable that the summits of the highlands in the eastern and southern portions of the county were then the only parts of it that protruded from the wide extent of waters, and in the form of small detached islands .*

* We are mainly indebted for the materials of this chapter to Prof. Will- iam W. Mather's Report on the Geology of the First Geological Dis- trict of New York.

HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

CHAPTER XI.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS-ROUTES BY WHICH THE PIONEERS REACHED THEIR WILDERNESS HOMES -NAVIGABLE STREAMS THE PUBLIC HIGHWAYS --- INDIAN TRAILS-EARLY ROADS-EARLY EXPER- IMENTS IN STEAM NAVIGATION AT DE KOVEN'S BAY-EARLY RAILROAD ENTERPRISES IN DUCH- ESS COUNTY-DUCHESS RAILROAD CO. - POUGH- KEEPSIE & EASTERN RAILROAD CO .- POUGH- KEEPSIE, HARTFORD & BOSTON RAILROAD CO .- DUCHESS & COLUMBIA RAILROAD CO .- NEW- BURGH, DUCHESS & CONNECTICUT RAILROAD Co .- HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD CO. - NEW YORK & HARLEM RAILROAD CO. - BOSTON, HARTFORD & ERIE EXTENSION RAILROAD CO .- NEW YORK & NEW ENGLAND RAILROAD CO .- OTHER RAILROAD PROJECTS - CLOVE BRANCH RAILROAD CO .- RHINEBECK & CONNECTICUT RAILROAD CO .- PROJECTED AND ABANDONED ENTERPRISES-THE POUGHKEEPSIE BRIDGE CO.

W E have given some attention in a pre- vious chapter to the subject of pioneer settlements ; in this we purpose considering the means by which the pioneer reached his home in the wilderness, and the projects of internal im- provement which subsequently engaged his atten- tion. As we have seen, the first settlers came by way of the Hudson, near which the first settlements were begun. Settlements slowly progressed in the interior, along the streams, which were the first, and, for some years, almost the only highways in the county. Gradually they diverged from these into forests, unbroken, except by the small rude clearings made by the Indians, following the well-worn trails left by the latter, and from these branched off into routes indicated by blazed trees, which were the forest guide boards, and by their aid the forests were traversed from one locality to another. But these human denizens could not prosper in their isolated settlements; they must needs open communication with each other and to points affording a market for their surplus products ; to this end roads were indispensable and of the first importance.

In 1731, the number of inhabitants had increased so that an order was made by the Justices of the county to lay out a road to Dover, and employ freeholders to assess damages for property taken, etc., the object being to enable the people "to come down to the market or common landing at Poughkeepsie."* In 1738, the Assembly passed

"an act for the better clearing and further laying into public high roads in Duchess County." Sau- thier's map, published in 1779, shows a principal road extending through the towns bordering the Hudson, known as the post-road, with several others branching from it, one at its intersection with Crom Elbow Creek, extending thence north through Rhinebeck and Red Hook to Tivoli (Hoffman's Ferry,) and having three branches ex- tending northerly and north-easterly into Living- ston Manor ; a second, extending from Rhinecliff, (Kip's Ferry,) easterly to Thompson's Pond; a third, north-easterly from Fishkill to Verplank's mill, on Sprout Creek ; and a fourth, south-easterly from Fishkill, through Putnam County, to Danbury in Connecticut. Two roads entered the county on the east from Sharon, one extending westerly to the central part of the Great Nine Partners' Tract, and the other south-westerly across the Oblong, termi- nating below Dover. Another road intersected that extending from Rhinecliff to Thompson's Pond near the intersection of Clinton, Milan and Rhine- beck, and extended south-easterly through Clinton, Washington and Dover, crossing the Oblong road, apparently, near Dover Plains, and thence to New Fairfield and Danbury in Connecticut. A map ac- companying Anburey's Travels, in 1777, shows only one road, (which, however, is not indicated on Sauthier's map.) It enters the county from Sharon, and passes south-westerly through "Nine Partners," Hopewell and Fishkill, crossing the Hud- son to "Newberry," (Newburgh.) The map accom- panying De Chastellux's Travels, 1780-1782, shows the same road ; but what is called "Nine Partners" on the former, is designated "Neventsorp" on the latter, which also shows the post-road running par- allel with the Hudson. The road indicated on the latter maps is the one pursued by the British army under Burgoyne after the Convention at Saratoga, to Charlottesville in Virginia. But we need not multiply details in regard to these common high- ways ; suffice it to say that they multiplied accord- ing to the needs of the people.

It is an interesting fact that one of the first ex- periments in steam navigation was made within the waters of this county-at DeKoven's Bay, just below Tivoli-by Chancellor Robert R. Livingston and an Englishman named Nesbit, the latter of whom was employed by Livingston to build a steamboat at that place, in 1797, from plans furnished by Liv- ingston. The project was unsuccessful, but the effort was renewed, and ultimate success achieved through the liberality, perseverance and intelligent

* Poughkeepsie Weekly Eagle, July 8, 1876.

THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL STEAMBOAT.

energy of Livingston, combined with the genius of Robert Fulton, whose acquaintance he made in Paris, while serving as ambassador to the French Court. In August, 1807, the " Clermont," named from Chancellor Livingston's home on the Hud- son, but called by the incredulous populace " Ful- ton's Folly," the first successful steamboat, with its quaint wooden boiler, was launched at New York, and on the 7th of September following set out on her first trial trip to Albany. The distance of 150 miles was accomplished in thirty-two hours. The following advertisement appeared in the Albany Gazette of September 2, 1807 :-

" The North River Steamboat will leave Pauler's Hook, [now Jersey City,] on Friday, the 4th day of September, at 9 o'clock in the morning, and arrive at Albany on Saturday at 9 in the evening. Provisions, good berths, and accommodations are provided. The charge for each passenger * will be as follows :-

"To Newburgh, 14 Hours, 66

Fare, 66

$3. 4.

Poughkeepsie, 17

Esopus, 20

66 Hudson, 30

Albany, 36 66

7 .*

Early in the history of railroad enterprises the project of a railroad from Poughkeepsie to the rich and thriving regions of the Eastern States was agi- tated, but not until 1872 were the hopes then ex- pressed fully realized. Some years before the first railroad in America was built, at Quincy, Mass., in 1826, in which year the first railroad company was chartered in this State, though the road was not in operation till 1831, a letter appeared in the Poughkeepsie Journal and another in the Tele- graph, proposing a road from Poughkeepsie to Sharon, but the people of that day thought a canal from Amenia to Hudson River would furnish bet- ter and more speedy means of communication, and a charter for such canal was obtained. In the discussion of the relative merits of the two projects, however, nothing was done. March 28, 1832, the Duchess Railroad Co., of which William Davies and his associates were incorporators, was chartered to construct a railroad from Poughkeepsie to the Connecticut State line. William Davies, Henry Conklin, Paraclete Potter, Homer Wheaton and Morgan Carpenter were appointed commissioners to receive subscriptions. The capital was fixed at $600,000. No action was taken under this char- ter, except that the project excited considerable discussion, and the route was surveyed, also a route to the State line in North East, Henry Whin- field and William Dewey being the engineers. May

25, 1836, the company was rechartered under the same title, and a capital of $1,000,000, but with greater latitude in the location of the route, which might extend from Poughkeepsie to the Massa- chusetts or Connecticut State line. Gideon P. Hewett, James Grant, Jr., Homer Wheaton, Peter P. Hayes, Isaac Merritt, Abijah S. Hatch, John D. Robinson, Thomas Williams, Jacob Van Benthuysen, Matthew Vassar, Samuel B. Dutton, George P. Oakley and Henry Conklin were named commissioners to receive subscrip- tions. Beyond the surveying of routes east to Amenia and through Pine Plains and North East nothing was done under this charter, and the mat- ter was allowed to sleep till 1855, when a meeting was called at Washington Hollow of all who were in favor of a road from the east part of the county to the Hudson. Quite a number were present from the central part of the county, and a few from Poughkeepsie, but during the meeting the ques- tion was agitated, as it was subsequently, whether the terminus should be Poughkeepsie or Fishkill. The advocates of the latter terminus were in the majority and voted accordingly, whereupon the Poughkeepsie people withdrew from the enterprise, and it was dropped for ten years.

The idea of a railroad, however, was not lost sight of, and renewed agitation resulted in the construc- tion of a road from each place. Isaac Platt, the senior editor of the Poughkeepsie Eagle was always a strong advocate of the Poughkeepsie route. He wrote in favor of it from 1826, and took occasion whenever opportunity offered to publish articles on the subject. Among these was a series of com- munications from the civil engineer, then residing at Poughkeepsie, whose statements attracted con- siderable attention, and new movements were pro- posed. The breaking out of the war in 1861, again put a stop to all operations, but some time in 1863, they were resumed, and the people began to feel something like a general interest in them. In the spring of 1865. there was quite an arousing on the subject. Another meeting was held at Washington Hollow, and hostility to Poughkeepsie again appeared. It was then that the representa- tives of Poughkeepsie resolved to abandon all action in that direction and act independently. A meeting was then called at Salt Point, which was adjourned for a more general one at Bangall. This latter meeting was largely attended, an organ- ization under the general railroad law was formed, and it was resolved to have the requisite surveys made for the road, which was to be built from

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History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 19

Author: Smith, James H. (James Hadden); Cale, Hume H; Roscoe, William E Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 868

Author: Smith, James H. (James Hadden); Cale, Hume H; Roscoe, William E
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 868