History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 2

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 2

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"Leacote," residence of Douglas Merritt, Rhine- beck. .facing 255 Lossing Benson J., view of birth-place, Beekman, 547 " Marienruh, "residence of Louis A. Ehlers, Rhinebeck, .facing 284 Martin Homestead, Red Hook, property of Edward Martin, view of. .facing 186 Merritt Wm. T., Poughkeepsie, portrait ..... facing 447 Mizzen-Top Summer Hotel, Pawling. .between 558-559 Nine Partners Boarding School, from a sketch by

Alex. H. Coffin in 1820.

facing 327

Nichols Thomas G., Poughkeepsie, portrait 459 Odell Luman B., Beekman, portrait self and wife, between 548-549

O'Brien John, Rhinebeck, view of residence, facing 268 "Old Store Building" in Mechanic. facing 328 " Rose Lawn," residence of Edgar M. Vanderburgh, Washington. between 334-335

"Rose Hill," residence of Major General J. Watts de Peyster, Red Hook 210

" Rose Hill," view of tower and library, 211

Riverview Military Academy, Poughkeepsie ... facing 409 Roosevelt James, Hyde Park, view of Hudson River from residence facing 302

St. Paul's Church, Red Hook

193

St. Paul's Church, Red Hook, view from the South, 195 St. Paul's Church, Red Hook, view from the West, 196 St. John's Church, Pawling. 557 Storm John V., Fishkill, portrait facing 506 Schell Augustus, New York City, portrait (steel) facing 455 Shear John C. and A , La Grange, view of residence between 468-469

Shear John C., La Grange, portrait, (steel) ... facing 471 549 Skidmore Peter Akin, Beekman, portrait.

Sleight Peter R., La Grange, portrait .. .facing 473 Tallman John P. H., Poughkeepsie, portrait (steel) .facing 452

Taber William H., Pawling, view of residence,

.facing 561 Taber William H., Pawling, portrait 561

"The Locusts," residence of Wm. B. Dinsmore, Hyde Park between 300-301

" The Locusts," view of the lawn in front of resi- dence .between 302-303 "The Locusts," view of the flower garden and conservatories. .between 304-305

" The Locusts," view of the lodge and carriage house facing 306 "The Locusts," view of farm yard, barn and stables. between 306-307 "The Locusts," view of the carriage house ... facing 307

"The Locusts," view of the garden. facing 309 " The Locusts," view of avenue from the post-road 309

" The Locusts," view up the Hudson river from the

landing. facing 310

PAGE. " The Locusts," Initial. 310

"The Locusts," view of residence from the river . between 310-311 Thompson Hon. John, Poughkeepsie, portrait, (steel) facing 448 Thorne Jonathan, New York City, portrait, (steel) facing 329

"Thorndale," residence of Edwin Thorne, Washing- ton, view of lodge and entrance 331

" Thorndale," view of residence. facing 332

" Thorndale," view of the farm barns and training stables. between 332-333 Thorne, old homestead of Samuel, and birth-place of Jonathan, Washington, facing 328 Tower Albert, view of summer residence, Beekman, facing 547

451

Tuthill Samuel, M. D., Poughkeepsie, portrait .. ... Vassar Matthew, Poughkeepsie, view of birth-place, 412 Vassar Matthew, Poughkeepsie, view of first resi- dence in Poughkeepsie 413

Vassar Matthew, Poughkeepsie, view of last residence, 413 Van Voorhis Major William Roe, Fishkill, portrait, (steel). facing 534 Van Voorhis Major William Roe, Fishkill, view of homestead. 535

Van Voorhees Johannes Coerte, view of homestead 535 Wheeler Francis B., M. D., Poughkeepsie, portrait ... 462 Whitehouse, residence of the late Hon. John O., Poughkeepsie .facing 404 Whitehouse Hon. John O., Poughkeepsie, por- trait facing 454 Whitehouse John O., Poughkeepsie, view of boot and shoe factory facing 387

Willets Jacob, portrait, Washington,

329

Willets Deborah, portrait, Washington

329

" Wood-Cliff," residence of John F. Winslow, Pough- keepsie. between 380-381

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

Akin Hon. Albert J. Pawling.

560

Ayrault George, LaGrange

472

"Ayrault Place," LaGrange.

473

Brown Samuel, Beekman.

549

Bentley Col. Gilbert, Clinton. 289

Bisbee Otis, Poughkeepsie

457

Bowne James, Poughkeepsie.

445

Bockée Family, Poughkeepsie

442

Blair Robert, Fishkill.

536

Booth George, Poughkeepsie

463

" Callendar House," residence of J. Livingston, Red Hook 213

Campbell Cornelius N., M. D., Poughkeepsie 457

Carpenter Hon. Isaac S., Stanford

299

Carpenter Hon, Morgan, Poughkeepsie.

442

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

Carpenter Hon. B. Platt, Poughkeepsie. 443

Carpenter Hon. Jacob B., Washington .. 333

" Cedar Hill," residence of R. M. Taggart, Pough-

keepsie ..

450

"Cliffdale" residence of Mrs. C. E. Boardman Poughkeepsie .. 441

Clark Henry F., Poughkeepsie

444

Coffin Family, Union Vale .....

479

Congdon Jarvis, Washington

330

Cooper John R., M. D., Poughkeepsie.

461

DePeyster Family, Red Hook

204

Eno Wm. S., Pine Plains. 237

"Ferncliff," residence of William Astor, Rhine-

beck 281

Friends Brick Meeting House, Washington

327

Gillender Theophilus, Rhinebeck. 280

Guernsey Desault, Amenia 356

Howard Hon. James, LaGrange.

facing 467

Hooker James, Poughkeepsie.

460

Ketcham Hon. John H., Dover

facing 484

Lamoree George, Pleasant Valley.

facing 316

Lossing Benson J., Dover.

488

"Marienruh," residence of Louis A. Ehlers, Rhine-

beck .

283

Members of the Poughkeepsie Bar.

463

PAGE.

Merritt Wm. T., Poughkeepsie. 447

Medical Profession of Poughkeepsie ...

466

Nine Partners Boarding School. 326

Nichols Thomas G., Poughkeepsie. 459

Odell Luman B., Beekman. 548

Skidmore Peter Akin, Beekman

549

Schell Augustus, New York City.

455

Shear John C., LaGrange.

471

Sleight Peter R., LaGrange.

473

Swan Cyrus, Poughkeepsie.

451

Storm John V., Fishkill

facing 506

Taber Wm. H., Pawling.

561

Tallman John P. H .. Poughkeepsie

452

"The Locusts," residence of Wm. B. Dinsmore, Hyde Park 310

The Old Store Building in Mechanic, Nine Partners, 328 Thompson Hon. John, Poughkeepsie. 448

"Thorndale," residence of Edwin Thorne, Washing- ton . facing 330

Tuthill Samuel, M. D., Poughkeepsie.

451

Vanderburgh Edgar M., Washington

334

Van Voorhis Family, Fishkill.

534

Willets Jacob and Deborah, Washington,

329

Wheeler Francis B., D. D., Poughkeepsie

462

Whitehouse Hon. John O., Poughkeepsie.

454

HISTORY

DUCHESS COUNTY.

CHAPTER I.

ABORIGINES - PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD-ANTIQUITY OF AMERICA --- ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS-THEO- RIES REGARDING THEIR ORIGIN-OBSCURITY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS- ANALYSIS OF THEORIES RESPECTING IT-INDIAN TRADITIONS RESPECTING IT -MIGRATIONS OF THE LENNI LENAPES-THE MAHICANS A BRANCH OF THE LENAPE FAMILY-EXTENT AND LOCA- TION OF THEIR DOMINIONS.

"W HAT we usually term the begin- ning of history," says Humboldt's Cosmos, "is only the period when the later genera- tions awoke to self-consciousness." The historic period for the region of country the history of which it is the purpose of this volume to give, may be said to date from the advent of European explorers to its contiguous shores-more specifi- cally of that English discoverer, whose name has been given to the noble river which washes its western border-for their reports give us the first as well as the most exact and comprehen- sive account we have of the people who then inhabited it. These people are classed under the generic term Indians-a name which obtains from the fact that when this continent was discov- ered by Columbus and others who succeeded him in search of a western passage to the East Indies, it was supposed to be the eastern shore of the con- tinent of India .* Their history prior to their inti-

mate association with civilized people is shrouded in obscurity, and is transmitted to us in the form of vague and fragmentary legends. The Indians were a barbaric race and have left no written his- tory, except that we occasionally discover traces of their rude paintings and still ruder engravings. But these are pronounced merely the totems of the Indians by Catlin, who says, " I have been unable to find anything like a system of hieroglyphic writ- ing amongst them."* Heckewelder, however, says, that, although they "do not possess our art of writing," and "have no alphabets, nor any mode of representing to the eye the sounds of words spoken, yet they have certain hieroglyphics, by which they describe facts in so plain a manner, that those who are conversant with those marks can understand them with the greatest ease, as easily, indeed, as we can understand a piece of writing."f But these records were of so perishable a nature as to be almost valueless for historical pur- poses. They were made upon fragments of bark, or upon the smooth surface of trees from which the bark had been removed for that purpose. This absence of a connected written history is, however, compensated in a measure by the less enduring relics, consisting of the implements of husbandry, the chase and war, which the plow and other means of excavation have numerously disclosed. Their fortified villages and places of burial are rich also in suggestive incidents.

* Indians of North America, I, 3.

* Catlin's North American Indians, II, 246.

1 Historical Account of the Indian Nations, in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 117.

I 2

HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

Who were the aborigines of this country is a subject of much learned inquiry. It is pretty gen- erally believed that the races who occupied it on the advent of the Europeans, were preceded by one more numerous and more highly cultured, though the evidence that such is the fact is meager and unsatisfactory. De Witt Clinton points to the numerous mural remains which existed throughout the northern, central and western parts of this State, and to the more remarkable ones bordering the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and their branches as evidence of the fact ;* while more recent authors, reasoning from more exact data, ascribe the origin of the former works to a much more recent date, and to a different race of people than the latter.t The evidences referring to a pre-historic period within this State are rare, though the celebrated Pompey stone į may be cited as an instance of this character, without, however, furnishing neces- sarily conclusive proof.

That the nations of the eastern hemisphere had knowledge of the existence of the American conti- nent long before its discovery by Columbus, their literature gives abundant evidence; and that its aboriginal inhabitants were descended from eastern peoples is generally conceded, though the theory that American antiquity ante-dates that of Asia, is not without its advocates.

Humboldt, from his observations of the remains of the civilizations of Mexico and Central America, was convinced that communication had existed between the eastern and western continents, evi- dence of which he found in the religious symbols, the architecture, the hieroglyphics, and the social customs made manifest by these ruins ; and the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg shows that the sym- bols of phallic worship, once so prevalent, and still, to some extent, practiced in the East, were de-

* Collections of the New York Historical Society for 1814, 89.

t Says E. A. Squier, M. A., " *** none of the ancient works of this State, (New York, ) of which traces remain, displaying any considerable degree of regularity, can lay claim to high antiquity. All of them may be referred, with certainty, to the period succeeding the commencement of European intercourse."-Antiquities of New York and the WN'est, 9.

# This is a small boulder about thirteen inches long and twelve inches wide, bearing a most remarkable inscription and figures, which, if genu- ine, and correctly interpreted, furnishes what is supposed to be the ear- liest evidences of the presence of Europeans in North America. It dates back to a period earlier than the discovery of New England, New York or Virginia, a hundred years earlier than the founding of Plymouth colony, and within twenty-three years of the discovery of the new continent by Cabot. It has been reasonably conjectured by the author of Clark's Onondaga to be a sepulchral monument, erected, possibly, by a party of Spaniards, who, stimulated by the love of adventure, allured by the love of gold, or driven by some rude blast of misfortune, may have visited that region and lost one of their number by death. This stone was found some sixty years ago at Watervale, in the town of Pompey, in Onondaga county, which town, says Dr. Henry S. Holmes, Librarian of the State Library at Albany, "has yielded up more relics of the aborigines than any other place in this State."

scribed by the Spanish writers at the time of the conquest. " These," says Baldwin, "with the ser- pent devices, the sun worship, and the remarkable knowledge of astronomy that existed in connection with them, show a system of religion," of which, with the social institutions it consecrated, "Asia," says the Abbé," "appears to have been the cradle." " The traditions of these countries," says the same author, "are still more explicit. Their uniform testimony is, that the ancient American civiliza- tion came originally from the East across the ocean."

The origin of the barbarous Indians of North America is buried in even greater obscurity than that of the probable aborigines of this continent. Our information regarding it is almost wholly tra- ditional and conjectural. Efforts have been made to connect them with the Mound-builders as their progenitors, and there are able advocates of the theory which supposes the unity of the races ; but, says Foster, f a broad chasm is to be spanned before we can link the two, who, he says, "were essen- tially different in their forms of government, their habits and their daily pursuits." The former, "since known to the white man, has spurned the restraints of a sedentary life, which attach to agri- culture, and whose requirements, in his view, are ignoble. He was never known to erect structures which should survive the lapse of a generation." "The Mound-builders," he adds, "cultivated the soil in a methodical inanner, far different from the mode presented by the present Indians," and he cites as evidence "the vestiges of ancient garden- beds" left by them. Baldwin says, referring to the savage tribes, or wild Indians, their barbarism was "original ;" there was nothing to indicate that they or their ancestors, near or remote, had ever been civilized, " even to the extent of becoming capable of settled life or organized industry."} He adds, "the constant traditions of these Indians, sup- ported by concurring circumstantial evidence, ap- pears to warrant the belief that they came to this part of the continent originally from the west, or north-west, at a period too late to connect them in this way with the Mound-builders." After referring to the skill of the Mound-builders in the ceramic and other arts, he asks, "who can imagine the Iroquois or Algonquins working the copper mines with such intelligence and skill, and such a com- bination of systematic and persistent industry !

* Pre-Historic Nations, by John D. Baldwin, A. M., 392-395.

t Pre-Historic Races of the United States, 347.

# Ancient America, 59.

PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS.

They had no tradition of such a condition of life, no trace of it. It is absurd to suppose a rela- tionship, or a connection of any kind, between the original barbarism of these Indians and the civilization of the Mound-builders. The two peoples were entirely distinct and separate from each other. If they really belonged to the same race, which is extremely doubtful, we must go back through unnumbered ages to find their common origin and the date of their separation."* Says Bancroft, "It has been asked if our Indians are not the wrecks of more civilized nations." He answers: "Their language refutes the hypothesis, every one of its forms is a witness that their ances- tors were, like themselves, not yet disenthralled from nature."t

Charlevoix and other later writers have entered into elaborate disquisitions on the probable origin of the American Indian, and the curious reader will find much to interest, if not to instruct him on this vexed question. The theory of a northwest- ern immigration by the barbarous hordes of Asia has long been advocated and has gained credence among modern authors generally. John de Laët, a Flemish writer, was an early advocate of this theory and among the first to remark a resem- blance in the features, complexion and manners of the Scythians, Tartars and Samoeides and those of the American Indians. "Ledyard," says Bancroft, "whose curiosity filled him with the passion to circumnavigate the globe and cross its continents, as he stood in Siberia, with men of the Mongolian race before him, and compared them with the Indians who had been his old playfellows and schoolmates at Dartmouth writes deliberately that, universally and circumstantially, they resemble the aborigines of America. On the Connecticut and the Obi, he saw but one race." "The American and Mongolian races of men, on the two sides of the Pacific," adds the latter author, "have a near resemblance. Both are alike strongly and defi- nitely marked by the more capacious palatine fossa, of which the dimensions are so much larger that a careful observer could, out of a heap of skulls, readily separate the Mongolian and Ameri- can from the Caucasian, but could not distinguish them from each other. Both have the orbit of the eye quadrangular, rather than oval; both, especial- ly the American, have comparatively a narrow- ness of the forehead ; the facial angle in both, but especially in the American, is comparatively

small; in both, the bones of the nose are flatter and broader than in the Caucasian, and in so equal a degree, and with apertures so similar, that, on indiscriminate selections of specimens from the two, an observer could not, from this feature, discriminate which of them belonged to the old continent ; both, but especially the Americans, are characterized by a prominence of the jaws. The elongated occiput is common to the American and the Asiatic; and there is to each very nearly the same obliquity of the face. Between the Mon- golian of Southern Asia and of Northern Asia there is a greater difference than between the Mongolian Tartar and the North American. The Iroquois is more unlike the Peruvian than he is unlike the wanderer on the steppes of Siberia. Physiology has not succeeded in defining the quali- ties which belong to every well-formed Mongolian, and which never belong to an indigenous Ameri- can; still less can geographical science draw a boundary line between the races."* Priest's obser- vations led him to the conclusion that " Asia and America were peopled by similar races of men." t

The traditions of the Lenni Lenape į or Dela- wares as they are called by the English, say that they " resided many hundred years ago in a very distant country in the western part of the American conti- nent." They resolved to migrate eastward, and hav- ing reached the Mississippi, then fell in with the Mengwe, (Iroquois,) who had likewise emigrated from a distant country and struck upon this river somewhat higher up. The Iroquois, like the Dela- wares, were proceeding eastward. The country east of the Mississippi was inhabited by the Alligewi,§ a

* History of the United States, II., 460,461. t American Antiquities.

# Lenni Lenape, says Heckewelder, who spent forty years among the Indians as a Moravian missionary, is the national and proper name of the people we call Delawares. It signifies "'original people,' a race of human beings who are the same that they were in the beginning, un- changed and unmixed" The Lenape are known and called, he says, by all the western, northern, and some of the southern nations, by the name of Wapanachki, which, among them, is a generic name, signifying " 'people at the rising of the sun,' or as we would say, Eastlanders," and which the Europeans corrupted into Apenaki, Openagi, Abenaquis and Abenakis .- (Introduction to Historical Account of the Indian Nations, 25-26.) " The term Lenape," says Schoolcraft, " appears to carry the same meaning as inaba, a male, and the word was probably used nationally, and with emphasis in the sense of men." Loskiel defines the name " Lennilenape," as meaning " Indian men," and says " the name Delawares was undoubtedly first given them by the Euro- peans."-(History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America, by George Henry Loskiel, Part I., Chap. I., 2.)

§ " It is generally believed," says Yates and Moulton, (History of New York, ) "that the Allegewi, or Alleghans, were of Welch origin. Priest (American Antiquities,) traces the Allegewi from the lake country to the "vale of Mexico, where they finally and permanently rested, " and there assumed the name of Aztecas, or people of the lakes. The course pursued in their migration is marked by the mounds where they rested, or dwelt temporarily. Schoolcraft says, "they occupied a large portion of the western area of the State of New York, comprising the valley of the Alleghany river to its utmost source, and extending eastwardly an un- defined distance." " The Alleghany river and mountains," says Hecke- welder, have " indubitably been named after them."-(Historical Ac- count of the Indian Nations, 30.)

* Ancient America, 59-61.

t History of the United States, II, 417.

HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

powerful nation, of great physical development, who had many large towns and regular fortifica- tions of earth on the great rivers flowing through their lands. They denied the Lenape the privilege of settling in their neighborhood, but gave them permission to pass through their country to the eastward ; when, however, they observed the great numbers of the latter they were alarmed and treach- erously attacked with great fury those who had crossed the river, threatening the others with destruction if they persisted in crossing. The Lenape, being too weak to force a passage against so powerful an enemy, made common cause with the Iroquois, and after a series of sanguinary battles, continuing through many years, and in volving immense losses on either side, the Alligewi, to avoid destruction, abandoned their country and fled down the Mississippi, whence they never re- turned .*

These traditions agree substantially with those of the Mahicans,t who inhabited the country immediately east of the Hudson, and were, says Heckewelder, a branch of the Lenape family.

The Lenape and Iroquois lived peaceably in the conquered territory of the Alligewi for a long period-"some say many hundred years "-and rapidly increased in numbers. Eventually some of the more enterprising Lenape hunters and warriors crossed the mountains to the Atlantic and discovered the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers and subsequently the Hudson. After a long

* Heckewelder's Historical Account of the Indian Nations, 29-32. + Joannes De Laet, who published his Nieuwe Wereld!, or description of the West Indies, as the country was then denominated, sixteen years after Hudson's discovery, designates them by this name ; also in his map of Nova Anglia Novem Belgium et Virginia, (in Novus Orbis.) According to Messrs. Dr. Barton and Heckewelder, ( Yates and Moul- ton's History of New York, 226,) the Mankikani and Mahikans of DeLaët ; the Mahiccanders (Joost Hartger's work, printed in Amster- dam, in 1651,) Mohicanders (Barton) and Nahikanders, (Benson's Memoir,) of the Dutch; the Manhikans, Mahikans or Mohegans, ac- cording to Prof. Ebeling, and the Mohegans or Mahhekanew, the original name of the Mohegans, (Gov. Clinton Dis. 2 N. Y. : H. Col. 41,) according to the English, (See Edwards on the Mohegan language ;) the Mohiccans, Mahiccon, (Ch. Thompson, Esq.,) and lastly the Mahic- cans and Mahicanni, (Barton and Heckewelder,) were all one people, originally a branch of the Delaware nation. The name, as adopted by the early French writers, and given by La Hontan in the old Algonkin, is Mahingan. (Ruttenber, 51.) Heckewelder says he is unacquainted with the origin of the name-Mahicanni-(Ms. Communication to Dr. Miller, 1801, in Library of the New York Hist. Soc.) Its equivalent-the word Mohe- gan-says Schoolcraft is not the true Indian term, having been shorn of a part of its true sound by the early French, Dutch and English writers. " It was a phrase to denote an enchanted wolf, or a wolf of supernatural power "-the wolf being " the prevailing totem of all the Hudson River cantons." The modern Mohegans called themselves Muhhekaniew, a term corresponding, apparently, with that (Muhheakunnuk) used by Capt. Hendrick, the Mohawk Chieftain, in his tradition of the Mahicans, which signifies "great waters or sea, which are constantly in motion, either ebbing or flowing, " and which, being the place of their nativity, was not resembled by any stream in their migrations towards the east until they reached the Hudson. (Indian Tribes of Hudson's River, 50, 51. Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., IX., 101.)

absence they returned, and gave so favorable an account of the newly discovered country as to induce the belief among their brethren that it was "destined for them by the Great Spirit." They emigrated thither, at first in small numbers, till the great body of the nation had made it their place of abode, with their central possessions on the Delaware. Here they divided themselves into three tribes. The Turtle, the Turkey, and the Wolf-calling themselves respectively, the Unamis, the Unalachtgos, and the Minsis. The former two chose for their place of settlement the country lying nearest to the sea; while the Minsis, who were considered the most warlike and active, located to the northward, between them and the Iroquois, who lived in the vicinity of the great lakes and on their tributary streams.

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History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 2

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