USA > New York > Ulster County > New Paltz > History of New Paltz, New York and its old families (from 1678 to 1820) : including the Huguenot pioneers and others who settled in New Paltz previous to the revolution, 2nd ed > Part 46
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HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ
Johannes and their great-grandfather Isaac had lived and located at Greenfield in the town of Wawarsing on land which came from the grandmother Vernooy. The date was about 1800. They had several hundred acres of land at Greenfield on which a stone house was built, which was a well known landmark and has remained in the family until the present day. Andries, the elder of the brothers, was born in 1777 and died in 1860 at the age of eighty-three years. His wife was Maria Bevier. They had one son Isaac who moved to Iowa, where his family is still living at Montrose in that state. They also had three daughters: Maria, who was Solo- mon DuBois' first wife and moved to Ohio; Margaret, who married James Chambers, and Nellie, who married Daniel LeFevre of Kettleboro. Peter LeFevre, who with his brother Andries, moved from Bontecoe to Greenfield, was born in 1780 and died in 1861. His wife was Nelly Newkirk. They had a family of four sons and eight daughters. The sons were: William, Peter, Epenetes and Andrew. Epenetes, the only survivor, lives on the old homestead. None of the sons left male heirs except William, who had two sons, Melvan living at Genoa, Ill., and Abram Deyo LeFevre of Zearing, Iowa.
DANIEL LEFEVRE OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
Until comparatively modern times the descendants of Simon LeFevre the Patentee, had emigrated from Ulster county much less than the other families of New Paltz Huguenots.
Daniel LeFevre, who emigrated to Delaware county when a young man, was born at Bontecoe in 1784 and was the son of Isaac, the only son of Johannes, son of Isaac, the first LeFevre at Bontecoe who was son of Simon the Patentee. Daniel's parents both died before he was ten years old and
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he was brought up by his uncle Philip Deyo who resided on the Paltz Plains and whose wife was his mother's sister. When twenty-one years of age Daniel struck out for himself and traveled on horseback over the Catskills to what is now' Delaware county, where he found an acquaintance and relative, Isaac Hardenbergh, a descendant of Col. Harden- bergh owner of the great Hardenbergh Patent. The country was then a wilderness without roads. Daniel LeFevre located in Delaware county in 1806. In 1808 he married Henrietta Schermerhorn and bought out her father's tanning business in the town of Roxbury, by the river on the old post road, about midway between Mooresville (now Grand Gorge) and Prattsville. Daniel and his wife are both buried in the churchyard at Prattsville. Their children, who grew to maturity were Isaac born in 1810, Gilbert born in 1816, Ann Maria (married Frederick Pomeroy), William Chauncey, Sarah C. (who married Charles C. More) and Salinda E. (who became the second wife of Floyd S. Mckinstry). The three sons, Isaac, Gilbert and William Chauncey all became practical tanners. The eldest son, Isaac, married Margaret M. Richtmeyer. They had children: Martin R., Henrietta, William LeRoy, Dewitt Chauncey, Elizabeth, Daniel and Sarah.
In 1844 Isaac moved to Northville, Fulton Co., where he built a tannery. His brother Gilbert was afterwards asso- ciated with him for a number of years. Isaac represented Fulton and Hamilton counties in the Assembly for the year 1854, was President of the Fulton County Bank of Glovers- ville, N. Y., from its organization for a period of fifteen years. In 1866 he removed to Albany, N. Y., and formed a partner- ship with Jos. H. Smith and his brother Gilbert in the whole- sale leather business, which continued until he retired in the
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early '80's. He continued to live in Albany until the time of his death in 1889.
Isaac's son Martin R. located at Beaver Falls, Lewis county, where he carried on the tanning business as his father and grandfather had done.
Gilbert LeFevre, son of Daniel, who moved from Bontecoe to Delaware county, married Lovina D. Gleason. After her death he married her sister Marietta Gleason, who died, leav- ing a son, Roman G. After his second wife's death he mar- ried Mary Ann Lobdell. By the third marriage there was one son, Arthur. Gilbert resided for a time at his father's
tannery in Delaware county. Afterwards he and others built a tannery at Greenfield in the town of Wawarsing. Subse- quently he moved to Kingston and in 1856 to Fulton county, where he carried on the tanning business, was supervisor of the town of Northampton for a number of years in war times. In 1866 'he moved to Albany, where he had a wholesale leather store and in that city he resided until his death.
William Chauncey LeFevre, son of Daniel of Delaware county and brother of Isaac and Gilbert, carried on the tan- ning business at Beaver Falls. He subsequently sold his business to his brother Gilbert who afterwards disposed of it to his nephew Martin R., son of Isaac. Wm. C. afterwards lived at Carthage. He was married, but left no children.
Each of the three brothers, Gilbert, Isaac and Wm. Chaun- cey were very successful and prosperous business men and had a large amount of property when they retired from the tanning business.
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CHAPTER XI
EMIGRATIONS FROM NEW PALTZ IN THE EARLY DAYS.
It was not until after the Revolutionary War that the wave of emigration swept westward.
In the Colonial days when the hive swarmed out at New Paltz and the young men and their wives left their native county, they did not go west to grow up with the country, but crossed the Hudson into Dutchess, or went north into what was then Albany county, or south into Orange, or journeyed further to Staten Island; or, passing on still further south, found a new home on the Raritan in Somerset county, N. J. Others, emigrating from New Paltz, found a new place of abode in Chester county (now Lancaster county) Pennsylvania, while William Penn was still living and pro- prietor of the province. Others of the tribe, emigrating from Ulster county in those old days, founded a home for them- selves and their descendants in Salem county in southwestern New Jersey. From documentary evidence, supported by tra- dition, we have some slight information of New Paltz people in the Colonial days who journeyed all the way to the banks of the far Potomac.
Where there were several sons in a family it was quite customary for one to remain on the paternal estate, while others would push out into a new region. In a portion of these cases we have the record of the purchase by the father of the land on which his son was soon to locate.
It is the purpose of this chapter to relate something of the history of those sons of New Paltz who left their homes in those early days.
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The three sons and one daughter of Simon LeFevre the Patentee all spent their days within the New Paltz patent. The three sons and one daughter of Pierre Deyo the Patentee were content to remain at New Paltz. Of the three sons of · Jean Hasbrouck the Patentee one kept his father's home- stead, one went to England and one enlisted in the war in Canada and we have no further account of him, except men- tion of his death in his father's will. Three of the four sons of Abraham Hasbrouck the Patentee remained in the vicinity while the remaining son settled in Dutchess county. The Freers, the Beviers and the DuBoises scattered widely in the first and second generations. Only one son of Louis Bevier the Patentee remained at New Paltz, while two went to Napanoch and another settled at Marbletown. The two daughters of Hugo Freer the Patentee married and settled at Schenectady; one of their brothers kept his father's home- stead in this village; one located in Kingston, one went to Bontecoe and another, after living at Bontecoe about twenty years, moved to Rhinebeck. Louis DuBois the Patentee had seven sons and one daughter. Four of the sons located in the immediate vicinity of New Paltz, one remained at Kings- ton, one settled at Hurley and one located at Rochester.
In the next generation the grandchildren of Simon Le- Fevre, Pierre Deyo, Louis Bevier and Jean Hasbrouck are found almost altogether within the bounds of Ulster county as it then was, while the grandchildren of Abraham Has- brouck, Hugo Freer and especially of Louis DuBois had scattered widely, the latter being found in various portions of the province of New York outside of Ulster county and likewise in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Of the descendants of the Patentees who made their home in New Paltz and vicinity we have given an account in the
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History of New Paltz and its Old Families. Of those in more distant parts of the county and in Dutchess, Orange and Albany counties and on Staten Island some information has been given; of the grandchildren of Louis DuBois who set- tled in New Jersey and in Pennsylvania and of some of the number who located in nearer places much remains to be told.
First taking up the sons of the Patentees who remained in the county, whose history we have not before related, we begin with the youngest son of Louis DuBois the Patentee.
GUN OF LOUIS DUBOIS THE PATENTEE Still in possession of the family -
MATTHEW DUBOIS.
Matthew, youngest son of Louis DuBois, was born at New Paltz in 1679. His brothers and sister were all born before their parents came here. Matthew's descendants have there- fore a special right to be reckoned among the " Old Families of New Paltz."
Matthew returned to Kingston with his father and mother when he was a lad seven years old and he lived there ever afterwards. His father died in 1696 when Matthew was sev- enteen years of age. In 1695 shortly before his death his
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father sold to Matthew a house and lot at Kingston and one-half of a certain tract in Hurley then in possession of Matthew's brother Jacob. By the provisions of the sale he was to come into possession of the property at Kingston after the death of his father and mother and after he became twenty-one years of age. Matthew's name appears as one of the village trustees in 1725 and as a freeholder in 1728. Before he was nineteen years old he married Sarah, daughter of Mattys Mattyson. They had eight sons and three daugh- ters. The sons were Louis, born in 1697; Matthew, born in 1698; Hiskiah (Hezekiah), born in 1701; Ephraim, born in 1703; Johannes, born in 1706; Jesse, born in 1709; Gideon, born in 1719; Jeremiah, born in 1721.
Matthew retained his father's homestead at Kingston only till 1731, when he sold it to Matthew E. Thompson. Over a century afterwards Elijah DuBois, a great-great-grandson, purchased the property.
Matthew's son Hiskiah married Anna Pierson and in 1722 located in Saugerties. He had a large family of children. In 1761 he owned two houses in what is now Saugerties village. In 1775 his name and that of his son Hiskiah, Jr., appear among the signers of the Articles of Association.
Of Matthew's son Johannes who remained in Kingston, we shall speak hereafter.
Little has been known about the remaining six sons of Matthew except their names on the baptismal record of the church book at Kingston, but it has been satisfactorily shown of late that they did not perish from the earth in infancy or childhood but appear in vigorous manhood in Dutchess county in Poughkeepsie and vicinity, where their names appear on church and civil records and where their father purchased land to the extent of at least 2,000 acres about 1730.
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The descendants of Jacques DuBois through his son Pierre, who settled in vicinity of Fishkill have taken great interest in their family history, but the descendants of his cousin Matthew, through these six sons who located in Poughkeepsie and its neighborhood, have not been traced down farther than about the time of the Revolution. We give what little we can gather of their history under the title " New Paltz Huguenots in Poughkeepsie before the Revo- lution." We learn this one additional fact from Mr. E. M. Ruttenber that there was a Capt. Matthew DuBois, Jr., born in 1724 (whom we suppose to be son of Matthew of Pough- keepsie and grandson of Matthew of Kingston), who was engaged in commercial business at New Windsor during the Revolutionary period, lived in Little Britain after the war and left a large family.
Matthew's son Johannes was the only one who remained in the vicinity of Kingston. He married Rebecca Tappan in 1728. They lived at the Twalfskill (Wilbur) where their descendants for generations were in the milling business. Johannes' name appears in the list of freeholders in Kingston in 1728; also in the list of foot soldiers in the corporation of Kingston in 1748, together with those of Nathan DuBois (son of Jacques, Jr.), and Isaac (son of Jacob of Hurley), those being the only DuBoises on the list. We find the name of Johannes in the list of slaveholders in 1755; also as one of the trustees of Kingston Academy when it was organized in 1774, as one of the trustees of the village of Kingston almost continuously from 1761 to 1774; also among the signers of the Articles of Association in 1775, together with his two sons, Joshua and Jeremiah, who are the only sons of whom we have any record. Both of these sons were men of prominence in the Revolutionary period. Joshua, who
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was born in 1745, married Catharine Schepmoes, by whom he had one son Joshua, Jr. After her death he married Margaret Masten, by whom he had a son Charles and daughter Ann. Joshua's home was at the corner of Wall and James street. His name appears as a soldier of the Revolution. He died at the age of seventy-seven. Joshua's son Charles, who was born in 1785, married Catharine Hen- dricks. Their son Elijah was for a long time president of the State of New York bank. Charles V. and Louis A. of Kingston are sons of Elijah.
Jeremiah, son of Johannes and grandson of Matthew Du- Bois, was born in 1748. He lived at the old home on the Twalfskill, where there was a mill used for carding wool and making cloth. His name appears as one of the trustees of the corporation of Kingston almost continuously from 1789 to 1800. His wife was Catharine Masten. They had one daughter Maritje and one son John Jeremiah, born in 1773. who also lived at the old house on the Twalfskill. Peter J. DuBois, who was a son of John Jeremiah, was born in this house in 1807 and was, half a century ago, one of the most prominent citizens of Kingston, being interested likewise in coal mines in Pennsylvania and different manufacturing en- terprises. Lemuel DuBois of Ellenville is a son of John Gosman DuBois and grandson of Peter J. ~
This ends our account of the family of Matthew, youngest son of Louis DuBois, the New Paltz Patentee.
DAVID DUBOIS OF ROCHESTER.
David DuBois was the fourth son of Louis the New Paltz Patentee. He was born at Hurley, March 16, 1667, mar- ried Cornelia Vernooy in 1689 and settled in Rochester. David left but one son and two daughters that married.
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The name of David DuBois appears as lieutenant in Cap- tain Vernooy's company for Rochester and Wawarsing in 1715. He was supervisor of the town of Rochester from 1717 to 1728. David DuBois and wife had one son, Josa- phat, born in 1706, and two daughters: Catryn who married William Kool, and Anna, born in 1703, who married Jacob Vernooy.
David's only son Josaphat married Tjatje Van Keuren in 1730. On the Kingston church records we find set down the birth of two daughters but no son. The daughters were Maria, born in 1735 and Catrina, born in 1739. The name of Josaphat DuBois appears in the Rochester company in I738.
JACOB DUBOIS OF HURLEY.
Jacob DuBois, born in 1661, third son of Louis the Pat- entee, has a very large number of descendants, some of whom have risen to prominence in various parts of the country. Jacob located on land of his father in Hurley. In 1689 he married Gitty Gerritson, daughter of Gerrit Cornelissen, who was the son of Cornelius Van Neiwkirk. Jacob DuBois and his brother Solomon were first of the sons of New Paltz Patentees to marry Dutch wives and their wives were sisters.
Jacob spent all his long life on the farm at Hurley and died in 1745 aged eighty-four years. Jacob's name appears as a member of the Hurley company in 1715 and as one of the town trustees in 1719. Jacob ,and his wife had nine chil- dren who grew to maturity and married. These were Mag- dalena, who married Gerrit Rosa; Barent, born in 1693, who married his double cousin Jacomyntje, daughter of his uncle Solomon DuBois; Louis, born in 1695, who married Jane Van Vliet and afterwards Margaret Jansen; Grietje, who mar- ried Cornelius Newkirk; Isaac, born in 1702, who married
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Nealtje Rosa and afterwards Janetje Rosa; Catrina, who mar- ried Petrus Smedes; Rebecca, who married Petrus Bogardus; Gerrit, born in 1704, who married Margaret Elmendorf; Jo- hannes, born in 1710, who married Judith Wynkoop; Sarah, who married Conrad Elmendorf.
Of the five sons of Jacob DuBois whom we have men- tioned, the two eldest Barent and Louis went to Pittsgrove, Salem county, in southwestern New Jersey, where their father had bought land for them and where the DuBois family increased and flourished greatly. Their brother Isaac had his home near Kingston. Gerrit went with his elder brothers to New Jersey but after his father's death returned to the farm at Hurley. Jacob's youngest son Johannes remained at Hurley.
Jacob's son Isaac, as we have said, lived near Kingston. His name appears as one of the foot soldiers in the corpora- tion of Kingston in 1738. He had a mill at Greenkill in the town of Hurley in 1751. Isaac and his wife had three sons: Jacob, born in 1733; Johannes, born in 1746 and Petrus, born in 1753. We know nothing about the two younger sons except that the name of Johannes appears signed to the Articles of Association at Kingston. Jacob, the eldest son of Isaac, bought a tract of land in 1757 lying on both sides of the Wallkill at Tuthill and including the island in the stream. He left two sons, Isaac and Jacob. The former took the land on the west side of the Wallkill and Jacob took the land on the east side including the island at Tuthill, Jacob's house was built where Gardiner village now is. He has a number of descendants in the New Hurley neighbor- hood. The late Hon. Jacob LeFevre, whose mother was a daughter of this Jacob DuBois of Gardiner, had among his old papers a deed on parchment dated in 1757. showing that
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Jacob DuBois of the corporation of Kingston had purchased the tract of 250 acres with buildings of Jacob Rutzen and others, paying for the property £250 cash. The name of Jacob DuBois appears as one of the signers of the Articles of Association in 1775.
Gerrit, son of Jacob of Hurley, married Margaret Elmen- dorf. After his father's death he returned to Hurley. He had two sons, Conrad and Tobias. Conrad's name appears in the Articles of Association as a resident of Marbletown. The family of Conrad has spread into Ohio, Michigan and Missouri. He and his brother Tobias each had nine chil- dren. The children of Tobias located in different counties in this state. The name of Tobias DuBois appears as first lieutenant in a Marbletown company in 1778.
We come now to Johannes (in English John) who was the youngest son of Jacob of Hurley and the only one to remain permanently in that town. He married Judith Wynkoop in 1736. They had five sons and two daughters. Four of the sons located in Hurley and were the only great grandsons of Louis the Patentee who lived at Hurley. The sons of Johannes DuBois and his wife Judith Wynkoop were Jacob, Cornelius, Petrus, Abraham and John. They had also two daughters. The names of Johannes and his eldest son Jacob are signed to the Articles of Association in 1775. The names of Johannes and all his sons except Abraham appear on a road list of the town of Hurley for 1781, showing that they were residents of the town at that time. In the old graveyard at Hurley the tombstone of Cornelius DuBois states that he died in 1829 aged eighty-six years, thus show- ing that he was born in 1743. His son Derrick of Hurley was sheriff in 1828.
This ends our account of the descendants of the New Paltz Patentees in Ulster county.
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HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ
THE DUBOIS FAMILY IN NEW JERSEY.
Three of the grandchildren of Louis DuBois the New Paltz Patentee Abraham (son of Abraham) and Barent and Louis (sons of Jacob) went to New Jersey.
We have said that Barent and Louis, the two eldest sons of Jacob DuBois of Hurley, emigrated to west New Jersey. We have some information concerning this branch of the DuBois family from the "Record of the Family of Louis DuBois " published in 1860 by Robert Patterson DuBois of New London, Penn., and William Ewing DuBois of Philadelphia.
From their account we condense the following sketch:
Early in the eighteenth century the farmers of Esopus had information of very good lands for sale in the southern part of what was then and still is called West Jersey. Very soon after crossing Oldman's Creek, which is the northern bound- ary of Salem county we suddenly leave the scrubby pine forest and the sandy waste and come upon a tract where the large timber is firmly rooted in a clay soil, giving indications of a country well suited to agriculture. In this region in 1714 Jacob DuBois of Hurley, Sarah DuBois, Isaac Van Meter and John Van Meter purchased a tract of 3,000 acres of Daniel Cox of Burlington, N. J. Two years later Jacob received title for 1,200 acres of this tract from the other three. On this land the brothers Barent and Louis settled, no doubt soon after their respective marriages, that of Barent occurring in 1715 and that of his brother Louis in 1720. Barent car- ried with him to his new home his certificate of membership in the church at Kingston, dated in 1716, written in Dutch and signed by Petrus Vas, minister. In 1733 Jacob deeded the land to his sons Barent and Louis, who had settled on it a number of years before. The deed from Jacob to Barent
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mentions as a consideration the "love and good will which he beareth to his son and likewise a certain sum of fiIo, current and lawful money of New York." Barent had eight children of whom seven were sons: Jacob, Solomon, David, Jonathan, Isaac, Gerrit and Abraham. Of these sons Jacob, born in 1719, became a captain in the time of the Revolu- tionary War; Jonathan became a minister of the gospel, locating at Northampton, Bucks Co., Pa. He was one of the first trustees of Queens (now Rutgers) college at New Brunswick, N. J. His eldest son Abraham was a captain of cavalry in the Revolutionary War. Jonathan DuBois has a numerous posterity in Bucks county, Penn., while there is a numerous tribe descended from his brothers in West New Jersey even to the present day. Barent's son Abraham, born in 1738, became a silversmith in Philadelphia.
Barent DuBois' brother Louis, who also went from Hurley to Pittsgrove, N. J. and located on a portion of the same tract made other purchases until his total landed estate amounted to about 1,100 acres. The house built by Louis in 1725, remained standing until about 1860. In 1742 Louis DuBois sold two acres at Pittsgrove as a church lot and he and his wife were among the first members of the Presby- terian church at that place then organized. He died in 1784. Louis and his wife Margaret Jansen had eleven children of whom eight were sons: Jacob, Matthew, John, Cornelius, Peter, Joseph, Benjamin and Samuel. The son Benjamin, born in 1739, became a minister of the gospel and had charge of the churches at Freehold and Middletown, in Monmouth county, N. J., for a period of sixty-three years, though he had a helper in his old age. His pastorate extended over the stormy period of the Revolutionary War and the strife between the Coetus and Conferentia factions in the church.
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He is believed to have been educated in Poughkeepsie. He became pastor of the churches mentioned in 1764 and his pastorate ended with his death in 1827 at the age of eighty- eight. In the Revolutionary struggle his patriotism was so ardent that he could not content himself with advocating the American cause in his sermons and prayers but would some- times shoulder his musket and knapsack and join the ranks to the great disgust of the tories and British soldiers. His wife Phebe Denise lived to be ninety-six years of age and died in 1839. They had ten children, five of whom emigrated to Franklin, O., on the Big Miami, accompanied by a num- ber of Jersey people. A Presbyterian church was soon organized. The place was known as the Jersey settlement. A DuBois family picnic is held regularly in the vicinity. Rev. Benjamin DuBois' daughter Sophia was grandmother of the late Garret A. Hobart, Vice-President of the United States. This and other information concerning the DuBoises in Ohio we had in 1897 from Tunis V. DuBois of Xenia in that state, a great-grandson of Rev. Benjamin DuBois of New Jersey.
THE FAMILY OF ABRAHAM DUBOIS, SON OF ABRAHAM THE NEW PALTZ PATENTEE.
Abraham (2) son of Abraham the Patentee, 1685 to 1758, married Marie LaSiliere, 1717. They were members of a considerable party who emigrated from the Paltz to Salem and other counties of the state of New Jersey. They finally settled in Somerset county at or near Neshanic. They were well to do and acquired a considerable land interest in Salem and Somerset counties. Their children were: Francoise, b 1718; Margaret, b 1720; Marie, b 1721; Catrene, b 1723; Abraham (3) 1725-1793, married Jannette Van Dyke, 1747; Nicola (son) b 1732; Rebeka, b 1734.
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