History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 26

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 26

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The Representatives in Congress from Duchess County have been : Egbert Benson, of Red Hook, 1789-1793, 1813-'15, (resigned ;) Theodorus Bailey, of Poughkeepsie, 1793-1797, 1799-1803, (elected in November, 1801, in place of Thomas Tillottson, of Red Hook, who did not attend ;) David Brooks, 1797-'99; Isaac Bloom, of Red Hook, 1803, (died in 1803 ;) Daniel C. Ver- planck, of Fishkill, 1803-1809, (elected Oct. 8, '1803, vice Bloom, deceased ;) James Emott, of Poughkeepsie, 1809-1813 ; Thomas J. Oakley, of Poughkeepsie, 1813-'15, 1827-'28, (resigned May 9, 1828, having accepted the office of Judge ;) Abra- ham H. Schenck, of Fishkill, 1815-'17; James Tallmadge, Jr., of Poughkeepsie, 1817-'19, (elect- ed in June, 1817, vice Henry B. Lee, of Putnam county, deceased;) Randall S. Street, of Pough- keepsie, 1819-'21 ; William W. Van Wyck, of Fish- kill, 1821-'25 ; Bartow White, of Fishkill, 1825- '27 ; Thomas Taber, of Dover, 1827-'29, (resigned Feb. 6, 1829 ;) Abraham Bockee, of Federal Store,

* James Holdane was elected in 1876, but did not attend. Alexander Orr, of Brooklyn, was elected to fill the vacancy.

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MILITARY HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

1829-'31, 1833-'37; Edmund H. Pendleton, of Hyde Park, 1831-'33, Obadiah Titus, 1837-'39; Charles Johnson, of Poughkeepsie, 1839-'41 ; Richard D. Davis, of Poughkeepsie, 1841-'45; William W. Woodruff, of Hyde Park, 1845-'47; Gilbert Dean, of Poughkeepsie, 1851-'54. (resigned in July, 1854 ;) James Teller, of Matteawan, 1854-'55, (elected in November, 1854, vice Gilbert Dean, resigned ;) John Thompson, of Poughkeep- sie, 1857-'59; Stephen Baker, of Poughkeepsie, 1861-'63 ; Homer A. Nelson, of Poughkeepsie, 1863-'65 ; John H. Ketcham, of Dover Plains, 1865-'73, 1877-'83; John O. Whitehouse, of Poughkeepsie, 1873-'77.

CHAPTER XIV.

MILITARY HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY-FRENCH AND ENGLISH COLONIAL WARS-WAR OF THE REVOLUTION - MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS IN DUCHESS-PROVINCIAL CONGRESS - MEASURES FOR THE FORMATION OF A STATE GOVERNMENT -CONTINENTAL SHIP YARD AT POUGHKEEPSIE -CHAIN ACROSS THE HUDSON - SIR HEN- RY CLINTON'S EXPEDITION UP THE HUDSON -REDUCTION OF FORTS CLINTON AND MONT- GOMERY-GEN. VAUGHN DESTROYS KINGSTON- HIS OPERATIONS IN DUCHESS COUNTY-THE DUCHESS INVINCIBLES - SURRENDER OF BUR- GOYNE AND MARCH OF HIS ARMY THROUGH DUCHESS COUNTY AS PRISONERS OF WAR-FISH- KILL A DEPOT OF SUPPLIES FOR THE CONTINEN- TAL ARMY -- HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS OF FISH- KILL-ENOCH CROSBY -REVOLUTIONARY INCI- DENTS IN PAWLING-ADOPTION OF THE STATE CONSTITUTION - PRINTED IN FISHKILL-STATE GOVERNMENT REMOVED TO POUGHKEEPSIE - TORIES ATTEMPT THE SEIZURE OF NOTABLE MEN-ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION RATIFIED BY THE LEGISLATURE IN POUGHKEEPSIE-THE CONVENTION TO CONSIDER THE REVISED FED- ERAL CONSTITUTION MEET IN POUGHKEEPSIE- WAR OF 1812.

T r

HERE is little of interest in the military his-

tory of Duchess County previous to the Revolution. Her citizens were, indeed, called on to render military services, but her borders were not the theater of active operations. In 1696, when the settlements of the county must have been very sparse, the daring incursions of the French and Indians in the war then waging, called forth

the following action on the part of the New York Government :-

" Resolved for the future, that Six pounds shall be given to each Christian or Indian as a Reward who shall kill a ffrench man or indian Enemy- within three miles of Albany or any other Settled farme in Albany, Ulster or Dutchesse Countyes."

A printed proclamation to that effect was issued May 11, 1696 .* Nov. 9, 1696, Gov. Fletcher, refer- ring to an anticipated attack of French and Indians on Albany that winter, speaks hopefully of his ability to successfully resist such invasion with the forces he then had and such as he might be able to draw from Ulster and Duchess counties in case of alarm .¡ From 1744 to 1748, the French and En- glish were again at war, and,' like all their wars from the commencement of American colonization, the colonists of these respective nations in the western hemisphere were involved in these hostilities. May 30, 1746, Gov. Clinton laid before the Council a letter from Col. Beekman, relating to the raising of men in Duchess County, and was advised by that body to engage 200 men, and recommend the As- sembly to provide ammunition, pay and subsistence for them .¿ During the war from 1755 to 1763, which terminated French dominion in Canada, the services of the citizens of Duchess county were again called into requisition. The surrender of the forts at Oswego to a French force under Gen. Montcalm, August 14, 1756, induced Gov. Hardy to call out all the militia of Duchess and Ulster counties, who were dispatched to Albany to co- operate with Lord Loudon, who, a little later that year marched an army through the county en route to Lake George. He traversed the old post road, which is said to have been opened by his direction. About the same time a detachment of Connecticut militia crossed the towns of Dover and Amenia to re-enforce his army in the North.$

These French and Indian wars, especially the later ones, were not without significance and import- ance. They were the school in which were trained many who were destined to take a prominent part in the struggle then impending for colonial inde- pendence ; for in March, 1764, the year following the treaty of Paris, which ceded Canada to the English, and put an end to French domination on this continent, the odious stamp act was passed, and though it was repealed two years later, (March 18, 1766,) in response to the petition of a

* Col. Hist., IV, 150. t Ibid, 243. # Ibid VI., 6 50.

§ Col. Hist. VII., 124, 199.

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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

Congress in which nine of the thirteen Colonies were represented, the intense feeling of indigna- tion and hostility it aroused was only partially al- layed. The seed of American independence had been sown in fruitful soil, and the continued acts of oppression by the English government only brought it to an earlier maturity. When, on the 19th of April, 1775, the first martyrs to the cause of Liberty surrendered their lives on the common at Lexington, the impulses which had long been repressed in the breasts of the patriots burst into activity, and the flame then kindled burned with increasing brightness until American independence was accomplished.

The desire for independence was by no means a unanimous sentiment. In Duchess county, but not more than in other localities, a large and re- spectable minority opposed it .* The line between the Whig and Tory elements was sharply drawn, and collisions between them were of frequent oc- currence. In the summer of 1776, this county was the scene of an insurrection against the au- thority of the Provincial Congress, but it was soon suppressed, not, however, without the aid of the militia from Connecticut. Many arrests were made, more than enough to fill the jail at Pough- keepsie, so that some of the offenders were sent to the jail in the adjoining county of Litchfield.

In March, 1775,t a few Whigs met at the house of John Bailey, about three miles from Poughkeep- sie, and erected a liberty pole, with a flag, on one side of which was inscribed the words, " The King," and on the other, "The Congress and Lib- erty." The sheriff of the county, attended by a judge of the inferior court, two justices, a con- stable, and some other Tories, cut down the pole " as a public nuisance." A furious altercation af- terwards took place between the sheriff and Hon. Zephaniah Platt, who was one of the party that raised the pole. The sheriff accused him of trea- son and threatened to arrest him, but Platt seized a club and declared he would knock his brains out if he touched him. The sheriff drew his sword, but finally withdrew without attempting the arrest.

* The lists of those who signed or refused to sign the articles of asso- ciation show a radical difference in the views even of members of the same family, and in some of the Precincts almost an equal division. For instance : In Rhinebeck Precinct, of 480 freeholders and inhabitants, 262 signed and 218 refused ; in Rombout Precinct, of 762 persons, 502 signed and 260 refused ; in Beekman Precinct, of 386 persons, 257 signed and 135 refused ; in Poughkeepsie Precinct, of 295 persons, 213 signed and 82 refused.

+ Benson J. Lossing's Sketches of Local History, in The Dutchess Farmer of Dec. 12, 1876, to which, and to other documents kindly furn- ished by that gentleman, we are largely indebted for the materials of this chapter. A writer in the Poughkeepsie Weekly Eagle of July 8, 1876, makes the date of this event, July, 1775.

The following year, when Burgoyne was making his victorious march toward the valley of the Hud- son, the Tories of Duchess became bold, and de- fied the militia guard which had been established. About four hundred of them, well armed, assem- bled at " Carpenter's," now Washington Hollow, and threatened destruction to all the Whigs in the neighborhood. An expedition was immediately set on foot in Sharon, Conn., to break up the gang. A strong party of armed volunteers gathered at Bloom's Mills, north of Washington Hollow, and early in the morning marched to the latter place, where they found the Tories paraded in a meadow. Marching up with spirit, the volunteers fired on the insurgents, who broke and fled. Thirty or forty of them were captured and taken first to Connecticut and afterward to New Hampshire, where they were confined for about two years. About the same time seven Tories were committed to the jail at Poughkeepsie for robbing several houses. They were all painted and dressed like Indian men, but it was found that five of them were women-three of them a mother and her two daughters.

Numerous minor affairs, some of them resulting in loss of life, occurred in various parts of the county, and thefts and other acts of violence by Tories continually disturbed the Whig families of the county. Individuals persisted in their hostility, or were pronounced in their loyalty to the King, and June 30, 1778, the sentence of banishment was pronounced by a committee of the Provincial Congress of New York, appointed to " detect con- spiracies," against the following residents of Duch- ess county : William Smith, James Smith, Cornel- ius Luyster, Dirck Van Vliet, John Terrill, James Scott, Theophilus Nelson, Richard Williams, Lodowick Strydt, Samuel Mabbett, Agrippa Martin, Myndert Velie, Zebulon Walbridge, Joseph Zeed, William Brady, Joseph Mabbett and Benjamin Lapham.

Pending the earnest efforts of the several colo- nies to bring about a reconciliation with the mother- country, and at the same time to enforce a recog- nition of their rights by Parliament, a general congress, suggested by New York statesmen and called by Boston, was formed by the colonies to secure concert of action. Feb. 23, 1775, "the Tory Assembly of New York" declined to send delegates to the second Continental Congress. In March of that year, the "Committee of Sixty," composed of inhabitants of the city and county of New York, and charged with the duty of " carrying

131

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

into execution the Association entered into by the Continental Congress," issued a call to the several counties throughout the Province, to elect deputies to a Provincial Convention, to be held in New York City, April 20, 1775, for the purpose of choosing delegates to represent the colony in that Congress. That body met at the time appointed at the Exchange in New York City. Duchess county was represented in its deliberations by Eg- bert Benson, Morris Graham and Robert R. Livingston, the latter of whom was a member of the last General Assembly. It elected delegates to the Continental Congress, " to concert and de- termine upon such measures as should be judged most effectual for the preservation and re-estab- lishment of American rights and privileges, and for the restoration of harmony between Great Britain and her colonies."

The convention dissolved on the 22d of April, and the following day (Sunday) the news of the battle of Lexington reached the city, producing great excitement and indignation. The "Com- mittee of Sixty " was increased to a " Committee of One Hundred," which " resolved to stand or fall with the liberty of the Continent."

April 29, 1775, ten days after the battle of Lex- ington, a large gathering of " the freemen, freeholders and inhabitants of the city and county of New York," met and formulated the following pledge, which was circulated in the several counties for signatures :-

" Persuaded that the salvation of the rights and liberties of America depend, under God, on the firm union of its inhabitants in a vigorous prosecu- tion of the measures necessary for its safety ; and convinced of the necessity of preventing anarchy and confusion, which attend a dissolution of the powers of government, we, the freemen, freehold- ers, and inhabitants of being greatly alarmed at the avowed design of the ministry to raise a revenue in America, and shocked by the bloody scenes now acting in Massachusetts Bay, do, in the most solemn manner, resolve never to become slaves, and do associate, under all the ties of religion, honor and love to our country, to adopt and endeavor to carry into execution, whatever measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress, or resolved upon by our Provincial Con- vention, for the purpose of preserving our con- stitution, and opposing the execution of the several arbitrary and oppressive acts of the British Parliament, until a reconciliation between Great Britain and America, on constitutional principles, (which we most ardently desire,) can be obtained ; and that we will in all things follow the advice of our General Committee, respecting the purposes aforesaid, the preservation of peace and good order, and the safety of individuals and private property."

This pledge was approved and signed by the niem- bers of the Provincial Congress, and placed in the hands of committees to circulate through the coun- ties. It was signed by 1,820 persons in Duchess county ; 964 refused to sign it. Some who signed qualified their signatures by certain restrictions. The names of those who signed, as well as those who refused to do so, are preserved, but we have not the space to reproduce them here.

This first Provincial Congress began at once to devise measures for the general safety. The rais- ing of men and munitions was authorized. County Committees of Safety were appointed, and Egbert Benson, of Red Hook, was made chairman of the committee for this district. Precinct committees were also formed, and disaffected parties were brought under a strict surveillance. Warrants authorizing the recruiting of men in Duchess county were issued June 28, 1775, to Captains Henry B. Livingston, Louis Dubois, Andrew Bil- lings and Rufus Herrick ;, to First Lieutenants Jacob Thomas, Elias Van Benschoten, Jr., Ezekiel Cooper and Charles Grahamn, and to Second Lieu- tenants Roswel Wilcox, Cornelius Adriance, John Langdon and Jesse Thompson. In September, 1775, commissions were issued to the officers of nine companies in Charlotte Precinct, seven in Rombout Precinct, five in Rhinebeck Precinct, four each in Beekman and Amenia Precincts, and one in South East Precinct. Oct. 17, 1775, com- missions were issued to the officers of seven regiments in Duchess county, including two of minute men.

August 18, 1775, the County Committee re- solved to furnish a sufficient guard to the commit- tee in each Precinct, for the purpose of visiting the Tories in the county, who were to be requested in a friendly manner to surrender their firelocks for the use of the Continental forces, at a reasonable price, to be affixed by one of the committee and a person selected by the individual so surrendering it. In case of disagreement, an appraisenient was to be made by a person selected by these two ; and in case of refusal, such firelocks were to be taken forcibly, and a list of the names of persons from whom they were taken, with their value at- tached, was to be preserved. A considerable num- ber of guns were thus obtained for the use of the army.

July 8, 1775, the first Provincial Congress hav- ing resolved to adjourn, certain of its members were appointed a Committee of Safety, charged with the general supervision of the affairs of the Province

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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

when the Congress was not in session. The sec- ond and third Congresses also met in New York City, the former Nov. 14, 1775, and the latter May 14, 1776. The Congress, though deriving its authority from the people, was a revolutionary body, and owed its existence to the exigencies of the times. At its third session, in conformity with the spirit of a resolution adopted by the Conti- nental Congress May 15, 1776, measures were first introduced for the formation of an adequate gov- ernment. A motion to appoint a committee to devise a plan for this purpose met with strenuous opposition from those, who, jealous of every as- sumption of power, affirmed that that body was not delegated with such powers. Hence the subject was referred to a committee, who reported on the 27th of May, "that the right of framing, creating or remodeling of civil governments is, and ought to be, in the people," and recommended that, in- asmuch as doubts existed relative to the powers of that Congress in the premises, a new Congress be elected by the people, specially instructed upon the question of a new government. The old gov- ernment was declared to be dissolved, the royal governor having taken refuge under the guns of the British fleet. "This report," says Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, in an address delivered at the Kingston Centennial, in 1877, " is remarkable as the earliest, clearest, and most emphatic declar- ation of the doctrine of popular sovereignty." On the 31st of May, in consonance with the report of the committee, resolutions were adopted calling on the people to elect a new body empowered to form a new government, and instructed also upon the question of united colonial independence.

In the meantime the seat of war was transferred to New York. On the 25th of June, the British fleet and army under Lord Howe, arrived off Sandy Hook, and on the 30th, the Congress, apprehen- sive of an attack, resolved that the next Congress should meet at White Plains, and adjourned. The newly elected delegates met at the court house in that village July 9, 1776,* and on the forenoon of that day, a letter inclosing the Declaration of In- dependence, which had been adopted by the Con- tinental Congress on the 4th, was received from New York's delegates in that body. On the after- noon of the same day, this newly created body, with a marvelous heroism, while lamenting the " cruel necessity," concurred in that Declaration, and instructed their delegates in the Continental

Congress to support the same, and give their united aid to all measures necessary to attain its object. This was an act which, if the issue was successful, would crown them as patriots, but which, if a failure, would stamp them as traitors and felons. The following day, July Ioth, the Congress assumed the name of the "Convention of Representatives of the State of New York."

On the afternoon of the roth the Convention resolved to enter upon the formation of a new government on the 16th, but by that time the situation of affairs had become too alarming for deliberation. Washington was contemplating the abandonment of New York. British ships of war were anchored off Tarrytown, within six miles of where they were then sitting. Their whole atten- tion was occupied in raising troops and supplies and providing for the public welfare. In the meantime they ordained that all civil officers well affected toward independence continue the ex- ercise of their duties until further ordered, except that all processes thereafter must issue in the name of the State of New York. It was declared to be treason, and punishable with death, for any one living within the State, and enjoying the protection of its laws, to adhere to the cause of the King of Great Britain, or levy war against the State in his behalf.

On the 27th of July, the Convention found it necessary to move to Harlem. From Harlem the Convention removed to King's Bridge, thence to Odell's, in Philipse's Manor, and from thence Aug- ust 29, 1776, to Fishkill, where "they supplied themselves with arms and ammunition, and there- after legislated with their swords by their sides, lit- erally building the peaceful fabric of constitutional government in the very presence of the alarms, the perils, and the carnage of war."

At Fishkill the Convention first met in the Epis- copal church, September 5th, but that building was not in a fit condition to be occupied, being, so the chronicles say, "very foul with dung of birds and fowls, without any benches, seats, or conveniences whatever." They therefore removed to the Dutch church, which is still standing. Here sessions were held at intervals till Feb. 11, 1777, when they ad- journed to Kingston, where the final session was begun on the 6th of March.

During this time, from July 11, 1775, to March 5, 1777, the government was often confided to the Committee of Safety owing to the extreme difficulty of keeping so large a body together at this critical period, and from Sept. 2, 1776, to Feb. 14,

* Duchess county's delegates to this and other Congresses have been named in the Civil List, see p. 124.

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THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

1777, this committee, at intervals, held its sessions at Fishkill.

Nathaniel Sackett, who was born and received his education in Orange county, but was then a resident of Fishkill, was secretary of the commit- tee, and Jan. 3, 1777, was authorized by that body "to employ such detachments of the militia of Duchess county as are not in actual service, as he may deem expedient," " for inquiring into, detect- ing and defeating all conspiracies which may be found, * * against the Liberties of America." *

In 1775, Poughkeepsie was selected as one of the places where vessels for the Continental navy were to be built ; and on the 7th of March, 1776, workmen and materials were conveyed to that place by sloop from New York, the navigation of the lower Hudson being then uninterrupted by ice. Before the middle of that month, a sloop came down from Albany, laden with lumber from the mills of Gen. Schuyler at Saratoga, for the ship yard at Poughkeepsie, which was in the lo- cality of Southwick's tannery, near the lower land- ing. There in 1776, the frigates Congress and Montgomery, the former of twenty-eight, and the latter of twenty-four guns, were built, launched and equipped, under the supervision of Captains Lawrence and Tudor. They are said to have been staunch vessels and of good model ; but they never got to sea, as the British held the mouth of the river from the time they were built till 1783. They were wintered at the mouth of Rondout Creek ; and are supposed to have been burned in 1777, to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy when Sir Henry Clinton took the forts in the highlands. One or two fire-ships with fire-arrows were fitted out here by Capt. Hazel- wood in the summer of 1776.t Robert R. Living- ston, in a letter to John Jay, under date of May 21, 1776, urged the importance of building here " fourteen or fifteen light boats, capable of carry- ing a twelve-pounder, to secure Hudson River, which," he said, " is to be the chief scene of ac- tion,”ţ

Stedman, the English historian, mentions the fact that two frigates, two galleys and an armed sloop belonging to the Americans, lay at anchor under the guns of Forts Montgomery and Clinton, when those works were taken by the forces under

Sir Henry Clinton, Oct. 6, 1777, and, being unable to escape by reason of adverse winds, were fired by their crews.

July 25, 1776, a secret committee of the Con- vention met at Poughkeepsie and ordered the building of a boom and chain across the Hudson at Fort Montgomery, to prevent vessels from the British fleet ascending the river. The greater por- tion of that chain was brought down from Ticon- deroga ; the remainder was wrought by Theophilus Anthony, a blacksmith, whose shop was at Milton Ferry, about four miles below Poughkeepsie, (where he also carried on farming and milling ;) now the "Spring brook " property of his descend- ants, the Gill family. For these services the prop- erty of this staunch Whig was destroyed by the British expedition which burned Kingston in the fall of 1777,which was piloted up the river by a Duch- ess county Tory, who lived at Barnegat, (Clinton Point,) and knew all the Whigs in this locality .*

This chain was stretched from the mouth of Poplopen Kill to Anthony's nose, a lofty projecting rocky eminence, tunnelled by the Hudson River Railroad. It was 1,800 feet long, weighed, says Stedman, over 50 tons, and is supposed to have cost about £50,000. Its links were about 2} inches square. It was buoyed up by heavy spars, connected by iron links, and also by large rafts of timber. The additional obstructions at this point, which were not completed till the fall of 1777, con- sisted of a boom and chevaux de frise, which so ob- structed the current of the river, (here very strong,) that the water was raised two or three feet above them and pressed upon them heavily. Twice the chain was parted by this pressure :- first, a swivel, which came from Ticonderoga, was broken ; and the second time, a clevis, which was made at Poughkeepsie, gave way. f

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History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 26

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