History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 44

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 44

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Here, on land thus defined and named, the Moravian Missionaries made their first settlement. There is scarcely any history which enlists the sym- pathies of the reader more than that of the Mora- vian Mission among the North American Indians .* It relates to an unfortunate people; to a scat- tered people whose deplorable national calami- ties have, at last, excited the commiseration of even their destroyers. There is, perhaps, no sad- der history written ; for it is a continual recital of hope and success, resulting in disappointment and disaster; a quickly changing scene, in which noon- day clouds inevitably darken the sky that was serene and clear in the morning's dawn, and storms sweep over fields white for the harvest, rudely scattering the ripening grain to the winds of heaven. And yet the zeal, the devotion, the patience and christian love that mark the unobtrusive efforts of those messengers of peace to the red man, could not have been greater had the narrative of their labors come down to us an uninterrupted succession of triumphs.t

In 1769 James Winans purchased lot number

twelve * of the Little Nine Partners, upon which was located the grave of Gottlob Büttner, the most prominent man of the Moravian Missionaries, and who has been termed the Luther of Shacameco. Büttner's grave was still there, and the owner of the land enclosed the grave with a rude fence to preserve it from destruction. Mr. Winans died and Lot Twelve passed into other hands. Unable to translate the German inscription on the tomb- stone of Büttner, they took it to be the grave of an Indian chief. The fence was removed; the plow passed over the grave; the stone was broken by vandal hands, piece by piece, even to below the surface of the ground, and not a vestige was left to mark the spot where slumbered the Moravian missionary. In 1829, Lot Twelve was again sold, passing into the possession of Edward Huntling, its present owner and occupant. Apple trees which the Indians planted were still standing, scattered here and there as faithful sentinels over the departed dead. A century passed and nothing remained to mark the site of that once prosperous mission. Its precise locality had become a theme of speculation. The tombstone which the mourn- ing Indians erected to the memory of Büttner had long before disappeared, and strange feet un- wittingly trod on the forgotten grave. About 1855 a piece of the original stone, with a few letters en- graved thereon, found its way into the museum at Poughkeepsie. This was the first gleam of light after the darkness of a century. Rev. W. J. McCord and Rev. Sheldon Davis began about this time to take a deep interest in the discovery of the missing, and the latter was confident that this was a portion of the original stone erected at the grave of Büttner. The original inscription had been preserved by the Moravian Society at Bethlehem, Penn., and by comparison this piece proved to be a portion of the original stone. The next en- deavor was to find the grave. Very few persons could be found who had ever seen it when stand- ing, and none could mark the spot. At length Josiah Winans, a man of close observation and remarkable locality, one of the former owners of Lot Twelve, was asked to define the spot. When a boy he had tried to pull out the stone, using two teams for the purpose, but only succeeded in giving it an angular position. Walking as near the spot as possible, he pointed out the probable location

* History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians of North America ; by George Henry Loskiel, 1788. Translated from the German by Christian Ignatus Latrobe : London, 1794.

t For a detailed account of their sufferings and persecutions, and the final abandonment of their missions, see Chap. v, p. 28.

* In 1744 Charles Clinton had made a map of the tract of land known as the Little Nine Partners, which was purchased by Sampson Bough- ton and others from the Crown, April 10, 1706. According to that map the present monument stands on Lot 12, and Büttner's grave was also on this lot.

TOWN OF PINE PLAINS.

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of the grave. A plow was brought by Edward Huntling, and after a few furrows the stone was struck. Digging commenced at once, when some fragments of the original stone, with letters in- scribed thereon, were found. At a depth of five feet an arm bone and some pieces of a pitch-pine coffin were found, as evidence conclusive that this was the grave of Gottlob Büttner. Here, then, on the land of Edward Huntling, south of his residence, one hundred and forty-one years ago was situated Sha-ca-me-co Moravian Mission and Indian Vil- lage. Here, on what is now a cornfield, were lo- cated the huts of the mission. Just below, a little to the west, where now are a few scattering apple trees, was the garden of the Moravians. South- eastward, on a knoll, was their orchard, of which not a vestige now remains. The village* proper was composed of baptized Indians, each family having a bark house. The number of dwellers here in 1745 amounted to seventeen families. Their names were John, Jacob, Boaz, Peter, Dav- id, Joseph, Cornelius, Nicodemus, Solomon, Jonas, Susanna, Jeptha, Philip, Isaac, Nathaniel, Zacche- us and Ruth. In addition to these dwellings there was a mission house, church, bake-oven, cellars, a barrack and stable.

The church stood a little south of west from the present monument, very near the dividing line between lots eleven and twelve, where there is now a line fence. The barrack and stable were on the flat below. All the land near by was under culti- vation. There were "missionaries' fields," and " Indian brethren's fields." They had all things in common. Theirs was a colony united, and of one faith, to which were added none but baptized Indi- ans. This was their condition when the mission- aries were ordered before the Court at "Pikipsi, December 17, 1744."

North of this field of historic interest stands the monument erected to the memory of Gottlob Bütt- ner by the Moravian Historical Society in 1859.1

Probably the first house ever erected in the town, was that known as the "Booth-Lasher House," or " Dibblee" house, which stood on land now owned by George Clarke, near the village of Pine Plains. The original building was about 24 by 60 feet, but one story high, built of hewn pine square timber, from ten to twelve inches thick,

erected in log cabin style, the ends of the timber halved, and the whole fitting together as closely as hewn timber ordinarily does. This house was taken down in 1878, and in the jamb, or chimney, wasfound a brick stamped 1728, which is supposed to have been made in Holland and imported with those used by the Dutch settlers on the Hudson. Probably the date on this brick is very near the time of the erection of the house. Doctor Lewis occupied this dwelling as far as can be traced back, which was about the time of the Revolution. He was a Tory, and in consequence left during the war, and is said to have resided in Nova Scotia. After the war he returned but the reproaches of the successful party, added, it is supposed, to re- morse, were too much for him, and he hung him- self in the garret. The next occupant was Eben- ezer Dibblee, from Connecticut, and of French origin. He kept a store in one part of this house toward the close of the last century. In taking down the building a coarse shell comb was found with the letters " E. D." set in a scroll, and 1799 on the opposite side, both cut in apparently with a knife. These initials were probably of some member of the family, and the date is important as showing the time of occupancy. Next Mr. Booth and Mr. Lasher occupied the house in turn, until near the time of its being torn down.

The very earliest settlers of Eastern Pine Plains, and that portion of North East west of Winchell Mountain, were drifts from the early Dutch colonists who located on the Hudson, between Rhinebeck and Catskill. The disappointment and failure of the Palatines imported from England from 1710 to 1713 under the auspices of the land monopolists,-to make a living in the manufacture of " Naval Stores," pitch tar, turpentine and resin, from the stinted pitchless white pines on the six thousand acres purchased for that purpose by Gov. Hunter of Robert Livingston,-compelled these poor emi- grants to seek other localities, and other sources of labor for the sustenance of themselves and families. Some chose the west side of the Hudson and drifting into the valleys of Schoharie county, and south to the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, located in Southern New York and Pennsylvania. Others drifted east to the fertile flats of the Tacon- ics, and south-east to the Little Nine Partners, in the county of Duchess.

Adjoining the Little Nine Partners tract on the east, and at the extreme north end of that tract, was the Oblong, which the New England colonists pushing west obtained and possessed, establishing

* South of the knoll on which was the Moravian orchard, was situ- ated, contemporaneous with the Moravian Mission, a small Indian village of the Mohicans, whose chieftains were Wasamapa (Tschoop) and Sha- Dash, both converts to the Moravian faith.

That society has been extinct for some twenty years. Of this society Benson J. Lossing, the historian, was a conspicuous member.

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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

the villages of Spencer's Corners and Sichem, in what is now the township of North East. Winchell Mountain was a barrier to further immigration from that direction, being then, as now, the natural com- mercial boundary between the Connecticut and Hudson river colonists.

In religion the Connecticut border settlers were Episcopal or Presbyterian, and they early organized societies and built churches, as denominational views and ability gave interest and opportunity. Different from these, the Hudson river colonists were generally Lutherans, and to the churches of this denomination on the Hudson and at Clermont and Churchtown, they rightfully claimed and owed allegiance. To these, twenty miles or more, they went to church in the primitive pioneer manner on horseback, holding a child on the horse in front and one or more behind. Once on such a journey a settler from near Carman's mill, in fording the Shacameco, near what is now the Risedorf farm, met with some difficulty, and a child intended for baptism in the parish church fell into the stream and was drowned. But, despite accidents and in- conveniences, they kept up these church relations until about 1744 or 1746, when an effort was made to build a church at the village of Bethel, in Pine Plains. This was one of the earliest of the ham- lets and was in those early days a business centre of no inconsiderable pretensions. It has the oldest cemetery in the town, in which, undisturbed by the clangor and changes of modern times, "the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." The place is now almost deserted. Its past greatness in the life of the town has departed. Its mechanics, and merchants, and schools, and quaint churches are numbered among the names and things that were, and the hamlet lives only in history.

In the ancient . cemetery are seen the moss- grown tombstones of those who early peopled this section and made possible the present prosperity of the town. One of the oldest of these tablets is :-

"In memory of Sarah, wife to Henry Yonk- honce, died April 25, 1770."

And another,-

" In memory of Hendrick Hoffman, who de- parted this life Feb. 4, 1789, in the 70th yr of his age."

Beside him rests

"Sibel M., wife to Hendrick Hoffman, who died July 26, 1805, aged 83."

Hendrick Hoffman and Matthias Hoffman were among the earliest settlers in the town. Previous

to 1740 there were but few inhabitants in this section, and not until after the Revolutionary war, probably not until 1784, did the influx of settlers begin.

The cemetery mentioned is known as the Round Top Cemetery, which name was derived from the first church built in the town, and at this place, the effort to erect which, in 1744 or '46, has already been noticed.

Previous to that date an imperfect title, or, more properly, no title to the lands, was a serious impediment to their settlement and to the parties living upon them. The Little Nine Partners Patent, comprising Milan, Pine Plains and North East, was granted in 1706, but failing to apportion the lands among the grantees, about 1744, or shortly previous, the assembly of the province of New York passed an act "for the more easy par- tition of lands, a part of tract of land called the second Nine Partner tract." In conformance to this act a survey was made by Charles Clinton, and a map also made bearing date May 7, 1744. This made sixty-three lots of the whole tract. By the above act Commissioners were appointed to apportion this tract according to this survey, among the owners who were not now the original grantees, as some of them had sold their interest in whole or in part, and one or two that were dead.

The apportionment duly made settled the title to the Little Nine Partners Tract, and the settlers began to make homes and permanent improve- ments. They were no longer squatters and tenants, but sovereigns and lords, and under their labors the forest and cabin disappeared, and were suc- ceeded by thrift and a higher civilization.

The deed that conveyed the Round Top Church property and Cemetery bears date May 15, 1769, and is from Peter Van Brugh Livingston,* " mer- chant, of the City of New York, of the first part, and John Tise Smith and Michael Raugh of the North Precinct in the County of Duchess, in the colony of New York, yeomen, of the second parts." In the apportionment of the Little Nine Partners Tract, about 1744, James Alexander, of New York city, received several lots, among which was a portion of Lot No. 30. He in his lifetime made a verbal promise to the people of the Lutheran denomination in this section that he would donate to their congregation about one acre of his part of Lot No. 30 for the erection of a church and for

* Peter Van Brugh Livingston was President of the First Provincial Congress, 1775.

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TOWN OF PINE PLAINS.

burial purposes. He died soon afterward, before the promise was fulfilled, and the property passed into the hands of his son-in-law, Peter Van Brugh Livingston, who, in honor of the memory of James Alexander, carried that promise into execution. The considerations were five shillings, lawful money of New York, and the yearly payment on the first of each May of one ear of Indian corn to him or his heirs if lawfully demanded.

The conditions of ownership were that the con- gregation should, within two years of the date of the deed, inclose the said piece of ground by a good and sufficient fence, to keep it forever after in good repair, "and erect a new edifice or church thereon, or keep the old church in repair, for the worship of Almighty God as practiced by the Lutheran Evangelical Churches, or use the same for a cemetery or church-yard for the burial or interment of the dead, and shall not appropriate, apply or convert the same at any time forever after to private secular uses." In the event that these conditions were not complied with, the property was to revert to the donator. or his heirs.

The pertinent facts brought out by this deed are, that this church was built by the Lutherans, and designed for the worship of God as practiced by that denomination. Tradition is in accord with this fact, but it is not known if there was ever an organized membership, and if there was, it is unknown when the organization took place and who were its members .* It is not known who were the Lutheran ministers who ministered here.

Ministers of that denomination came with the Palatine emigrants, and a Lutheran church was founded at Germantown, Columbia County, co- eval with the founding of the colony in 1710, but even of this church no record is known earlier than 1746. It is a reasonable supposition that the earliest Lutheran ministers who officiated among the Palatines either occasionally or periodically ministered here in the Round Top Church from 1750 to 1815.

Of one man who preached here in 1753 there is a weil authenticated record. This was the Rev. Abraham Reinke, who, four years after the death of David Bruce the Moravian missionary, was sent from Bethlehem, Penn., by the United Brethren to minister to the white people in Sharon and in this vicinity. In his diary t he states that during his sojourn of eight weeks he preached twenty times to

large audiences, his appointments being at Salisbury and Sharon, Conn., in the Oblong, in Nine Partners, and at Livingston Manor. The " Oblong" to which he refers was probably the old church at Amenia Union, and " Nine Partners" must have been this Round Top Church, as this was the only church in this section everywhere known and called Nine Partners.

Another pertinent exhibit in the deed has reference to the date or time of the erection of the building, found in the phrase-" and erect a new edifice or church thereon or keep the old church in repair." There is nothing to establish the precise date of the erection of the building. It was thought by some that its erection occurred in 1746; by others it was placed at an earlier date, 1740. The inferential evidence is rather in favor of the former, if not even of a later date. From the promise of James Alexander as mentioned in the deed, the inference is plain that the building was not erected previous to 1744. If he had purchased an undi- vided interest in the Little Nine Partners tract, which in all probability he had. previous to the award of the commissioners in 1744 he could not have known where his interest would be located, and therefore could make no promise of one acre on lot No. 30. It did not become his property until after the award. The presumption that it was built earlier than this award would be to illy judge the close, practical business natures of these Dutch descendants. It is quite improbable that they would locate a burial ground and build a church, without definite knowledge as to who was the owner of the land selected for that purpose. Contemporaneous with these years-1742 to 1746- existed the Shacameco Moravian mission to the Indians, whose location was less than a niile dis- tant, where a church was built or finished in 1743. These missionaries were familiar with the Dutch language, and in religious belief were closely allied to the Lutherans. From their diaries, with whose exhibit tradition harmonizes, it is learned that they visited and were familiar with the settlers, who, in turn, attended their meetings and heard them preach. It is inferred from these facts that 1745 or '46, certainly not later than 1750, is the proba- ble date of the building of Round Top Church. It would hardly be probable that there was a neces- sity for its erection during the life of the mission, which lasted until 1746. Nothing more than has been stated is positively known of its occupancy during the last century, and but little more is known of the present up to its demolition.

* As late as 1836 one person, at least, was living who claimed identity with this church-Hendrick Keifer.

t See Prof. Reichel's "Moravians in New York and Connecticut."

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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

In 1816 the present Presbyterian church at Pine Plains, two and a half miles distant, was completed, which in its then four denominational unity ab- sorbed the Lutheran element throughout what is now the limits of the town. All the early Palatine settlers were dead, and their descendants drifted naturally to this growing business center. The Quaker Church, built here in 1806, also had an organization which more or less divided the neigh- borhood in church attendance. These and other natural causes gradually drew away all interest in the Round Top church. The building began to decay. The clapboards became loose and were soon gone. What were left nailed to the frame were torn off in 1827, when the frame was taken down and the timber sold at auction. A portion of the timber was bought by Henry Hoysrodt and subsequently used in building a barn. The church stood on the east side of the road, where now is a cemetery, covering the spot where the present Wm. Anson Rowe monument stands.

The Quaker Church alluded to was another old building here, years ago used as a house of wor- ship by the Society of Friends. It is known as the Quaker Meeting House, and, in all probability, ante-dates any church building now in the town. Charles Hoag was the principal originator and founder of this church. He was the son of John and Mercy Hoag, of the town of Washington. They came from Connecticut. Charles Hoag was one of the most useful men of those early settlers who gave to the town its intellectual and moral status. He was born December 25, 1771. He married Betsey Denton, November 21, 1793, and settled at Bethel about 1798, on the farm now owned and occupied by John Case. From the records of this old church * the first mention of a meeting of this society held at "Bethel"-or North East, as it was then called-was at the first monthly meeting held at Stanfordville, 23d of fourth month, 1803. Stanford had been lately set off, either from "the Creek " Society-near Clinton .Corners-or from the "Nine Partners," near Mechanic, it is not certain which, and this was the first monthly meeting held at Stanford, April 23, 1803.

From a report presented by a committee at this meeting, it appears that Charles Hoag had been allowed to hold a meeting at his house, pre- vious to this meeting, either from the consent of the " Nine Partners " or " the Creek." This date, 1803, is probably very near the first meeting of the

Society held at Bethel, and the place is fixed as the house of Charles Hoag. In his house meet- ings were held until the Society built a small church, 26 by 30 feet with ten-foot posts, which was begun in 1806, and completed by June 20, 1807.

The old church, weather-worn by time, is still standing, and is now used as a dwelling house. The house in which Hoag lived is also standing near by. The church was built by Ezra Bryan, an early member, and its original shape, with its long steep roof and high gables, is still preserved.

Thomas Ellison about this time-1807-became a preacher according to the form of the Society of Friends. He was the first preacher to the Society at Bethel, and this was one, among others, of the fields of his earliest labor. There was no other church organized in the town at this time, and to this society and community was Thomas Ellison known above all men in his church connections for a quarter of a century. Of actual members in this society there were twenty-five or thirty, possibly more, among whom were Charles Hoag, Ezra Bryan, William Arnold, John Ellison, Daniel Weaver, Michael Wanzer and his father, Richard Carman, John Tweedy, from Ancram, Isaac and John Reynolds, Benjamin Mosher, Jacob Down- ing, Mrs. Daniel Lewis, and Gerardus Winans. The latter was expelled from the Society in 1807 for marrying a woman not a member of the denom- ination. The years from 1807 to 1830 were the brightest in the history of this society. Thomas Ellison moved away about 1827, and the society was left without a regular preacher. This vacancy was filled by various preachers from the parent society at Stanfordville, when possible, and among those Henry Hull filled the most appointments, Thomas Ellison preaching occasionally. These supplies became less each succeeding year, and, in the mean time,-1835 to 1840-other denomina- tions had erected churches and organized societies at Pine Plains which drew away support from this. Most of the original members had died, and as the members continued to decrease, the meetings, now occasional, became less so, until 1875, when it was deemed best by the Society to sell the prop- erty, which was accomplished by Peter Dorland at private sale to Phoenix Deuel in the spring of that year. John Carman, the youngest son of Phineas Carman, and grandson to Richard Carman, one of the first members of this society, died in 1879. He was the only living male member, and with his death is finished the record of the Friends' Society

# In the possession of Levi Arnold, of Stanfordville.

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TOWN OF PINE PLAINS.

established in " North East "* three-quarters of a century ago.

Charles Hoag, besides his zeal in religious mat- ters, was much interested in the cause of educa- tion. In 1812 or '13 he employed Jacob Willets and Deborah, afterwards so well known in this county, to come to his house and open a school for boys and girls. In this step he took the ad- vance, for in this part of the county there were none else in the field. The girls' school was in a building adjoining the south-west corner of his dwelling,f the boys' school being in an addition adjoining the main building on the north. Here. Jacob Willets and Deborah, his wife, taught some three years, and then went to Mechanic, and Enoch Haight succeeded them as teacher for a few years, when he left and established or taught a school on the site of the present County Poor House. Haight was succeeded at Bethel by Ambrose Eg- gleston, the eldest children of Charles Hoag now being assistants. They afterward conducted the school alone until about 1824, when it was closed. The building which was used for the girls' school was afterwards sold and converted into a dwelling, in which Hiram Davis, a shoemaker, formerly lived, and is now (1880) occupied by the venerable Josiah Johnson. Again, in 1835, Charles Hoag opened a boarding school in his dwelling, principally for ladies, his youngest daughter, Mary, being the principal. This also was a successful school, all the young ladies of the vicinity attending as boarders or day pupils, while the adjacent towns were well represented. In 1838 the school was suspended, Miss Hoag going to Flushing to spend a year at school. She returned in 1839, reopened the school and continued it one year after her father's death, which occurred in 1840, when it was closed, never to be reopened.

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History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 44

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