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 > Part 14
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Northeast of the Middletown school house, on the farm of
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his father-in-law John Waldron, lived Lawrence Hood, the ancestor of the Hood family. He died before his father-in- law, leaving two sons, John and Isaac. The farm passed from John Hood to his son ·Jesse, whose son lately owned it. Isaac owned the farm a short distance north.
BONTECOE IN 1820
Bontecoe has not changed so much since 1820 as some other parts of the town. At that time there were a number of Freers located on the northern bounds of the Paltz patent on both sides of the Wallkill. A little farther south were several mem- bers of the Deyo family, descendants of Hendricus Deyo. The southernmost of these farms was that of William Deyo. Next came the LeFevre tract. Grandfather Peter LeFevre occu- pied the old stone house still standing, which had come to him from his father Daniel. Besides carrying on the farming business, grandfather was a justice of the peace and was usually called 'Squire. The office was of considerably more importance than at the present day. Besides trying many im- portant cases he performed duties now restricted to lawyers, such as the drawing up of wills. There was no lawyer in New Paltz until about 1870.
The next old stone house, also still standing, was that of grandfather's cousin, Major Isaac LeFevre, who built the house and resided in it for some time, but removed to Esopus at about this date. He was a noted surveyor and about all the work in that line in this part of the country was done by him. Next to the LeFevre tract came the Ean farm, then owned by Peter Ean. Crossing Bontecoe kill, there was a school house on top of the hill at about this date.
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THE OLD LIBERTYVILLE MILL AS IT IS TO-DAY
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LIBERTYVILLE IN 1820
In 1820 and until a much later date Libertyville was known by its old Indian name, Nescatock. Here Chas. DuBois long carried on the milling business and was a prominent man. At that time there were about as many people in the Libertyville neighborhood as at present and nearly all were DuBoises- descendants of the two brothers, Solomon and Louis, Jr., the original settlers there.
The mill at Libertyville was probably the first running by water power, in this portion of Ulster county, except the one in the Mill brook north of our village. Still there was not much difference in the date of the erection of the Libertyville mill and the one at Tuthill. The Libertyville mill was built before 1790, by Nathaniel DuBois, who was a bachelor, and from him it passed to his nephew Charles. The mill-house was rebuilt in 1804. At first there was no dam across the - stream, but after the draining of the Drowned Lands, in Orange county the water in the stream got so low, in summer, that a dam had to be built. Nearly all the Paltz farmers brought their grain to the Libertyville mill and would some- times wait for it to be ground, sitting, in cold weather, by the blazing fire in the cellar kitchen, eating apples and drinking cider.
OHIOVILLE IN 1820
The New Paltz turnpike was not constructed until about a dozen years after this time. Going east from our village in 1820, the first house was that of Dr. Bogardus, where Jona- than Deyo now lives. Directly across the street lived John Terwillegar. Simon Rose, grandfather of Daniel Rose of this village, occupied the stone house now the home of Jacob
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Champlin. A little further on the farm house, in which Levi Wright long resided, was occupied by Jacob Halstead and an old man named Van Aken, who wore knee breeches. Where Milton B. Hasbrouck now resides was a house and blacksmith shop where John DeGroodt carried on business. Just this side of Ohioville a hotel was kept by Henry Cronk. Ohioville in those old days was called H-1 town, a name which stuck to the place until Moses Freer came back from Ohio and called it Ohioville.
HOUSES SOUTH OF OUR VILLAGE IN 1820
Passing on to the south from the present corporate limits of our village we have noted the old LeFevre house, built by Jean, son of Simon the Patentee, torn down about 1880. The next house in 1820 was that of Andries Deyo, now the Sprague place. This house was built in Revolutionary times by Andries Deyo's father, Philip. Andries had a large family of sons and daughters, of whom Solomon Deyo of this village is the only survivor.
Next to the Andries Deyo farm came the Edmund Eltinge farm of our day, which was owned in 1820 by Edmund's father, Peter Eltinge, who in 1826 built the present fine brick residence to take the place of the old stone house, which had burned down. The place came to Peter Eltinge from his father-in-law, Gen. Derick Wynkoop, who died about 1820.
Going on to the south there comes next the Cornelius Du- Bois, senior, tract of land, which requires some explanation. Cornelius DuBois, senior, of Poughwoughtenonk, son of Solo- mon, had left a landed estate of about 3,000 acres, lying on both sides of the Wallkill, and he had left a most singular will providing that his son, Cornelius, junior, should have the entire
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real estate during his life time, but that after his death his other children or their heirs should have their proper share. Cornelius' estate included on the east of the Wallkill the tract now comprising the farms of Lewis H. Woolsey, Wm. F. Du- Bois, Solomon DuBois and C. L. Van Orden. Cornelius, senior, had a large family of daughters. When, after the death of Cornelius, junior, the division of the property was made, what is now the Woolsey farm fell to the share of the daughter Sarah, who had married Jacob Hasbrouck of Mar- bletown. The Hasbroucks sold the place to a man named Peltz, who sold it to Elijah Woolsey, about 1825, at the rate of about $22 an acre.
The farm now owned by Wm. F. DuBois was also a part of the Cornelius DuBois estate and passed in the division to the share of a daughter Catharine (in Dutch Tryntje), who had married Col. Jonathan Hasbrouck of Newburgh. It passed from her to her daughter Rachel, who married her cousin Daniel, son of Col. Abraham Hasbrouck of Kingston, and located at Wallkill, Orange county. Jonas DuBois, grand- father of the present owner, bought of Daniel Hasbrouck and wife of Orange county, in 1830, 102 acres, constituting most of the present farm. The place was all in woods with no build- ings and the price paid was $2,000 for 102 acres.
What is now the Solomon DuBois farm, 160 acres, in the division of the Cornelius DuBois estate fell to the share of the daughter Jemima, who had married Andries Bevier of Wa- warsing. Jacob G. DuBois purchased it of the Beviers about 1829, paying about $20 an acre. There was a house on the place occupied by Joachim Schoonmaker.
The next farm, now owned by C. L. Van Orden, has had a singular history from the fact that it has passed in each gen- eration for a century from one family to another in the female
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line and three of its owners were named Leah. In the division of the property of Cornelius DuBois, senior, this tract fell to the share of his daughter Leah, who had married Cornelius Wynkoop of Hurley. It passed to their daughter Leah, who married Dr. Dewitt of Rochester. Dr. Dewitt's daughter Jane married Henry Hornbeck, also of Rochester, and they came to live on the place. In the next generation it became the prop- erty of their daughter Leah, who married Alfred Deyo. About 1830 Henry Hornbeck built the house, which at the time was considered the finest residence between Goshen and New Paltz.
We have come now on the Kettelboro road to the LeFevre tract of 1,000 acres, originally a part of the Garland patent. The old stone house now owned and occupied by Nathaniel Deyo, was the residence in 1820 of Noah LeFevre, grand- father of Josiah LeFevre of this village. It came to Noah from his father Abraham, and it passed from Noah to his son Jonas.
What is now the Jansen Hasbrouck place was in 1820 occu- pied by John LeFevre, son of the pioneer Abraham. It passed from John to his son Matthew and then to Matthew's son John M., who is now living at Peekskill with his son Matthew J.
The next farm, now owned by J. Elting LeFevre of High- land, was owned in 1820 by his great-grandfather, 'Squire Johannes LeFevre, who built the present large frame house about 1816, intending it for his son, Andries J. ' The latter died in 1817 and 'Squire Johannes moved into the house him- self, where he lived until his death, about 1840. The farm afterwards became the property of Andries J.'s son, Cornelius D., from whom it passed to the present owner.
The next farm was owned in 1820 by Jacobus LeFevre, a nephew of 'Squire Johannes. Jacobus built, about 1815, the frame house still standing. After Jacobus' death the farm was
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sold to divide his estate and became the property of Garret LeFevre and subsequently of John H. Wurts.
Next comes the farm, now owned by Albert Decker, which was owned in 1820 by Lewis LeFevre, a brother of Jacobus above mentioned. The house burned down about 1838 and was replaced by the present residence.
We have come now to the Deyo tract of 500 acres, which like the LeFevre tract was a portion of the Jas. Garland patent. The Daniel Bevier farm of our day was owned in 1820 by Daniel A. Deyo, father of Thomas J. Deyo of Wallkill.
Next comes the old stone house of Daniel Deyo, who was the ancestor of the Deyo family in this neighborhood. This house was occupied in 1820 by Jonathan, father of Dr. Abm. Deyo.
We have now come to Ireland Corners and to the southern boundary of the town of New Paltz as it was before the town of Gardiner was created.
BUTTERVILLE IN 1820'
The neighborhood, now known as Butterville, about two miles west of this village, was not settled until about 1812. The old Dutch name of the locality was "Oleynuit" (Butter- nut), and was doubtless bestowed on account of the number of butternut trees in that region. Afterwards, on account of the number of members of the Society of Friends who settled in that region, it was called "The Quaker Neighborhood." The name, Butterville was given to the locality by S. D. B. Stokes in selecting a name for the Sunday school which he and others had organized in that locality.
One of the first settlers in this region was Abram Steen, the father of our informant, Peter Steen. He was the son of Michael Steen, who emigrated from Holland and settled near
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the Swartekill, in Esopus. Michael's sons were Jacob, Abram, Matthew and Thomas. Abram was the only one of these who located permanently in this vicinity. He married a Freer from Bontecoe and purchased the land on which he located at But- terville of Major Isaac LeFevre. At that time the country all the way over the mountains to the Philip Ayres place, near the Clove, was in woods.
At about the same time that Abm. Steen built his house a number of the Society of Friends located in the neighborhood. Mr. Peter Steen's recollections of these neighbors, as they were about 1820, were as follows :
Rowland DeGarmo, father of Wm. H. DeGarmo, late of Rondout, came from Dutchess county and located where Henry Vanderlyn afterwards lived. Here he long carried on the tan- ning business on quite an extensive scale. Merritt Moore, who afterwards moved to Poughkeepsie, lived on what was after- wards the S. D. B. Stokes place. Next came the houses of Isaac and David Sutton, who were brothers and also came from Dutchess county. Matthew DuBois lately lived on the place of Isaac and Mr. Holmes on the place of David Sutton. Isaac was the father of Isaac S. and Henry P .; David was the grandfather of Thomas Sutton of this village.
Gideon Mullenix came from Dutchess county, we believe. His house was the only one of stone. He resided where Tim- othy Benjamin lived of late. Wm. Minard came from Esopus. He lived on the clay hill, in a house torn down about 1845. Benj. Wood lived near Libertyville, on a place owned of late by Daniel I. Hasbrouck. Increase Green lived on the place lately occupied by Samuel A. DuBois. David Dickinson was another of the early settlers and lived in a log house.
Under Bontecoe Point lived Abel A. Ayers, where his father, Thomas, lived before him on a tract purchased of the Beviers
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in 1808 and here Abel's son, Thomas, afterwards lived. Benj. Roberts, father of the late William B. of Clintondale, lived on the other side of the mountain, just above the Clove.
DeGarmo, the Sutton brothers, Moore, Mullenix, Minard, Wood, Dickinson, Green, Ayres and Roberts were all Friends.
James Pine came some time after the first settlement from Honk Hill. He was also a Friend.
There was no school house at Butterville until about 1830. Before that time, Mr. Steen tells us, his brothers went all the way to a private school on the other side of the mountain where Philip Ayres of late lived.
About 1825 the road was laid out across the mountain from Butterville to Wessel Brodhead's near Alligerville. The state road was laid out from Peter D. LeFever's through Canaan to be out of the reach of high water in the Wallkill. It went through Butterville to Libertyville.
Abm. Steen, the father of our informant, carried on the nursery business quite extensively about 1830. He raised his own stock of apple, pear, peach, plum and cherry trees. At first he supplied only the neighbors, but there were few nurseries at that time and as its fame spread he supplied trees to parties in Orange, Sullivan and Dutchess as well as in Ulster counties. Once a customer came all the way from the Shaker commuity, near Albany, and took a large load of trees. Peter Steen did a great portion of the graft- ing for his father. About 1860 the nursery business was discontinued.
The Friends' meeting house, at Butterville was built about 1820. Besides those in the neighborhood, a family named Ballou would come all the way from Greenfield in Wawarsing to attend the meetings. The land on which the meeting house was built was given for the purpose by
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Gideon Birdsall of Plattekill Valley. Abel Ayres was the only person residing in the neighborhood who frequently spoke in meetings. Speakers would come from other places. The division between the Orthodox and Hicksite parties made considerable feeling in the meeting.
All the people in the neighborhood were Friends except Abram Steen, Jonas Freer, Martinas Freer and a few others.
PLUTARCH IN 1820
In all the Plutarch neighborhood there were only two clearings in 1820. One of these was the home of Abm. J. Deyo, whose stone house, built in 1812, was quite certainly the last stone house built in New Paltz.
This section of our town was called by the old people Grawhow (in English Great Ridge), a name by which it is still sometimes called.
INDUSTRIES IN THIS TOWN IN 1820
Northeast of our village at about that time Isaac DuBois, grandfather of Isaac DuBois of Ohioville, had a grist mill where Wm. E. DuBois now lives. ' This mill of Isaac Du- Bois did but a small business, there being insufficient water.
In the old times hats were not all made in large factories as at present, but in smaller quantities. A man named Jackson carried on the hatting business for a time, in a shop across the street from the old graveyard, and had three or four men working for him. After a while he failed. Samuel Hasbrouck's oldest brother carried on the hatting business at Highland. At one time a man named Kellogg carried on the hatting business, about a mile north of the village.
At Rifton there was a carding and fulling mill, about 1810, . before the grist mill was built at Dashville. Farmers would
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bring their wool there to have it carded and then their wives and daughters would weave and spin it. Some women would go from house to house as spinsters.
In those old days some farmers would tan their own sole leather, but the upper leather was manufactured at the tan- nery. About 1812 Wm. McDonald, a Scotchman, had a tan- nery and residence on the east side of the Wallkill, about 200 yards below the present railroad bridge at Springtown. A millstone still marks the site, but the buildings have dis- appeared and the land passed into the possession of Roelif Hasbrouck and subsequently of Charles Eltinge. McDon- ald's wife was a Krom, from Marbletown. After a while he sold the tannery and located just south of Perry Deyo's residence, on the road to Libertyville, where he built a house.
About 1815 Rowland DeGarmo, father of Wm. H. De- Garmo, came from Dutchess county and settled at Butter- ville, where he started a tannery and carried on an extensive business. In those days oak bark was used exclusively for tanning. He would send around his teams to the farmers at butchering time and gather up hides, which he would tan on shares.
In those days John Hait, father of Thad Hait, carried on the tanning business in Plattekill. There was a tannery at Centerville, and another which carried on a large business at the lower toll-gate on the Turnpike. Now there is not a tannery in Southern Ulster.
TEACHERS ABOUT 1820 AND EARLIER
We have found among the old papers information concern- ing only one schoolmaster during the Dutch-speaking period in New Paltz, that is from about 1750 to 1800. This was
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Joseph Coddington, who was probably the ancestor of the Coddington family in Ulster county, though we have no infor- mation on that point. Joseph Coddington's name first appears on the church book in 1758, when he and his wife, Catharine Vandemark, had a child, Sarah, baptized. At different dates the baptism of other children are recorded. When the second stone church was built in 1771 Joseph Coddington performed a great amount of clerical work, every item of which is set down minutely in the church book and for which he charged £12 19s. In a document dated 1781 Jonathan LeFevre, grand- father of Hon. Jacob LeFevre, and his brother John leased for ten years to Joseph Coddington, schoolmaster, without any rent except payment of taxes, lots No. 15 and 199, being a portion of the 1,529 acres granted by letters patent to Noah Eltinge and Nathaniel LeFevre and being within the neighborhood annexed to New Paltz. Mr. Coddington was at that time be- coming advanced in years and had probably concluded to give up his school, which must have been in the old stone building, now the John Drake residence, and end his days as a farmer. We have no further information concerning Joseph Codding- ton, nor have we any information concerning teachers at New Paltz in the period succeeding the Revolutionary War.
ALEXANDER DOAG
One of the most noted teachers in the Kettleborough neigh- borhood and elsewhere in southern Ulster in the early part of the last century was Alexander Doag. He was a Scotchman, educated at the University of Edinburgh and taught at Kettle- borough for a considerable period, about 1815. Although a man of fine education he was a slave of the drink habit. Each morning, on arriving at the schoolhouse he would take a drink
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from a bottle in his desk. In his latter years fortune frowned upon him and he ended his days in our county poorhouse.
GILBERT C. RICE
A man of different type from Alexander Doag, at least so far as his habits was concerned, was Gilbert Cuthbert Rice, a young Irishman, who taught in different schools in this vicinity at about the same time as Doag. Rice was only about sixteen years of age when he commenced teaching in the Bontecoe neighborhood. He was a youth of great energy and determina- tion, and, although his severity in school would not be tolerated at the present day, yet after teaching at Bontecoe he taught at Kettleborough and, perhaps, elsewhere in this part of the coun- try. He was a Catholic, in religion, but that did not prevent him from attending Protestant church service.
MISS RANSOME
One of the first lady teachers in this part of the country was Miss Ransome, who taught the Kettleborough school for a long period, about 1825. Afterwards she married Henry G. DuBois and removed to Ohio. She was a lady of great tact and was greatly liked by the children and parents. She taught the girls to work embroidery as well as to understand the mys- teries of arithmetic, geography, etc. The mother of the editor of the Independent had a sampler, which she worked when a little girl at school under Miss Ransome's guidance, and which a granddaughter now cherishes among her treasures. Very well, too, do we remember mother's advice when we started out as a lad of sixteen to teach a country school, that we should imitate Miss Ransome's method of governing a school, by judi- cious praise, which was indeed in striking contrast with the severity of her predecessor, Mr. Rice.
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SKY TOP
This cut shows the lower portion of Sky Top, the south west corner of the Paltz Patent, called by the Indians Moggonck and by the old people Paltz Point. This cut shows also the Great Crevice and Table Rock, called by the old people Ephriam's Point.
PART II
HISTORY OF THE OLD FAMILIES OF NEW PALTZ
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CHAPTER XXII
THE FAMILY OF LOUIS BEVIER, THE PATENTEE
By Louis Bevier of Marbletown
When in 1628 the last of the Huguenot strongholds was taken by Richelieu, the Minister of Louis XIII, and some of the disheartened leaders in the Huguenot ranks abjured their faith and reentered the Church of Rome, the outlook of Protestantism seemed dark and gloomy indeed.
But the mass of the Huguenots still held fast the doctrine of the Reformation until the oppression and exactions of an unfriendly and unscrupulous government became unendur- able. Then those in the northern provinces of France took refuge in the adjoining Protestant lands.
Thus it came to pass that the Walloons escaped from their oppressors to the Palatinate. This movement began as early as 1640 and continued until 1670, and even later, and " it was during this period that many of those Huguenots, who afterwards settled at New Paltz, found a temporary home in the Palatinate.
They all seem to have applied themselves to those indus- trial pursuits to which they had been accustomed at home, and thus became a valuable element among the people with whom they were sojourning.
In the Palatinate at the following dates, were:
Louis DuBois and family, 1659, at Manheim.
Jean Hasbrock and family, 1672, at Manheim.
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Christian Deyo and family, 1675, at Mutterstadt.
Abm. Hasbrouck (probably), 1675, (his wife born at Mut- terstadt).
Louis Bevier and wife, 1675, at Frankenthal.
Simon and Andre Lefevre, (probably) at Manheim.
Anthony Crispell, (probably) 1660.
The names in the above list with those of Hugo Freer, Abraham and Isaac DuBois and Pierre Deyo make up the twelve "Patentees," and it is reasonably certain that all of them were in the Palatinate just before their departure for Wiltwyck .. It is certain that all of them were in Wiltwyck when, under the leadership of Louis DuBois, they secured the Patent from Gov. Andros in 1677.
In 1678 these men with their families proceeded to occupy the land and to build shelters for their families upon it on the site of the village, which, by general consent, they now named New Paltz, in fond remembrance of their first place of rest in exile from their native land.
Now the task of clearing and improving the land was be- gun, while title was held in common, no general division being made until 1703. The fact that no serious misunder- standing arose during nearly a quarter of a century of such joint occupancy should redound to the credit of this amicable and peace-loving community.
These settlers soon organized a French church at New Paltz in 1683, with Louis DuBois as elder and Hugo Freer as deacon, and having Dr. Daille as minister until 1696.
After a time they enjoyed the pastoral care of the min- isters of the Reformed Dutch church of Kingston.
Louis Bevier, one of the twelve patentees named above, was born at Lille about 1648. In early manhood he em- braced the doctrines of the Reformation, and, with his
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ardent temperament, he soon drew down upon himself so much opposition, and eventually persecution, that he could no longer remain in safety at home, so, with some Hugue- not friends, he took refuge in the Palatinate; and settled near Frankenthal, in which vicinity he remained until 1675. In the meanwhile he connected himself with a Protestant church of that place, and in 1673 he married Marie Le Blanc, a member of a family of Huguenot refugees from his native place.
In 1675, being desirous to emigrate to New York in order to rejoin his friends and relatives who had preceded him, he obtained from the pastor of the church in Frankenthal a certificate stating that he and his wife were members in good and regular standing, and commending them to other churches of like faith.
Dated, Frankenthal, March 5, 1675.
H. Lucasse, Pastor.
William Gosse, Andre Le Blanc, Witnesses.
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