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 29
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In the year 1709 Queen Anne granted to him, to his son, Jacob Klaarwater, his brother-in-law, Hendrick Vernooy, his son's father-in-law, Abraham Doiau (Deyo), Rip Van Dam, Adolph Phillipse, Dr. Gerardus Beekman and Colonel Wil- liam Peartree a patent of 4,000 acres of land in this county.
The patent is recorded in the office of the Secretary of State, in Book 7 of patents, at page 54, and embraces that tract in the present town of Shawangunk bounded by the Wallkill on the east, the Dwaarskill on the south and the Shawangunkkill on the west.
Theunis Jacobsen was one of the founders of the Reformed Protestant Dutch church at Kingston, commonly known as the First Dutch. He was chosen by the citizens of Kingston commissioner to present to the British Crown their protest
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against the arrogant and illegal conduct of the com- mandant of the English garrison stationed at Kingston under the English rule, a duty discharged with ability and dignity.
After his removal to Bontecoe he joined the Huguenot church at New Paltz. His son Jacob, who was born in Holland, mar- ried Marie, daughter of Abraham Doiau (Deyo), one of the patentees. He was the first Dutchman to marry a daughter of one of the New Paltz Patentees.
Theunis Jacobsen and Jacob were among the freeholders of the New Paltz Patent whose names appear upon the oldest tax list of the Patent now extant, that of 1712, which is preserved among the archives of the Memorial House.
Theunis Jacobson died in 1715 and was buried in the orchard of his farm at Bontecoe, which is still owned by one of his descendants.
A tablet, designed by Charles R. Lamb, the architect of the Dewey Arch, was erected on the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, 1899, in the Dutch church at Kingston to his memory, and that of some of his lineal descendants by Judge Clearwater of Kingston, his descendant six degrees removed.
The tablet is of white marble, framed by Corinthian pilasters, with capitals and frieze supported by heavy corbels. Upon the frieze is a scroll, on which is carved a pair of crossed swords on the model of those used by the officers of the con- tinental army, intertwined with oak leaves, the symbol of strength and heroism, surmounted by the words "In Me- moriam." At the base of the tablet is the inscription, "Fide Et Fortitudine," intertwined with ivy leaves, the symbol of remembrance and longevity. Each capital is crowned with a scallop shell, the emblem of the Pilgrim. The inscription is
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of bronze letters executed in high relief, and is as fol- lows :
1624 THEUNIS JACOBSEN KLAARWATER 1715 Whose ancestors were among the founders of the
DUTCH REPUBLIC. A soldier of Holland. An early settler of Ulster County.
1663 JACOB KLAARWATER. 1747
A native of Holland who fought in the wars of the American frontier.
1699 ABRAHAM KLAARWATER 1782 Sergeant in the provincial army during the Colonial Wars. Signer of the Articles of Association 1775. Dragoon in the Marbletown Troop of Horse during the war of the Revolution.
1757 THOMAS KLAARWATER · 1830 Signer of the Articles of Association 1775. Trooper in the Marbletown Horse. Soldier in the Continental Army.
1787 THOMAS TEUNIS CLEARWATER 1860
Soldier of the War of 1812.
The bronze is made of old cannon captured in battle during the American wars. The marble is from American quarries.
The tablet is placed in the west wall of the church and is a fine addition to the beautiful interior of that stately edifice.
Among the descendants of Theunis Jacobsen who will be recalled by the readers of this volume are the Honorable Hiram
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Clearwater, who for many years was the president of the Board of Education and the president of the Board of Water Com- missioners of the city of Cincinnati; the Reverend Charles Knapp Clearwater, now pastor of the old Reformed Protestant Dutch church of Newton, L. I .; Charles Hiram Clearwater, one of the pioneer manufacturers of Rosendale cement in this county ; Colonel Alfred Clearwater, one of the leading citi- zens of Northern Pennsylvania, and the Honorable Alphonso Trumpbour Clearwater, LL. D., who three times has been Dis- trict Attorney and twice County Judge of Ulster county, and afterwards Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. During the two hundred and forty years the family has been settled here its members have intermarried with many of the old Dutch and Huguenot county families, and those inter- ested in tracing their descent from its founder should consult among other family genealogies, those of Beekman, Burger, Davis, DePew, DeWitt, Deyo, DuBois, Elmendorf, Freer, Helm, Houghtaling, Hoffman, Kortright, Schoonmaker, Ter- williger, Trumpbour, Van Leuven, Van Wagenen, Vernooy, Wood.
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CHAPTER XLI
THE EAN FAMILY AT NEW PALTZ
The Ean family was the first of Dutch extraction to settle at New Paltz and remain here permanently. The Ean family is unique in another respect : from generation to generation there have been few boys in the family. Consequently the Ean name has increased but slowly. The first at New Paltz was Elias Eign (spelled by the French Un or Yn), who mar- ried Elizabeth, daughter of Anthoine Crespel, the Patentee. Another daughter of Anthoine Crespel, the Patentee, named Maria (or Maria Maddaleen), also settled at New Paltz and also married a Dutchman, Mattys C. Sleght. We have very little knowledge of Sleght or his children, although as late as 1724 we find the name of Mattys Sleght, Jun., signed to the agreement of the 24 proprietors of the Patent at that time, authorizing the Duzine to give title to land. The Sleght family certainly did not long remain at New Paltz. Ean and his descendants always remained here. In the tax list of 1712 he is assessed £35. In 1718 his name appears as the only per- son. not of the Patentees' families, who assisted in building the first stone church. In the agreement of the 24 proprietors in 1724, authorizing the Duzine to give title to land, appear the names of Jan Een, Elizabeth Een, Sarah Een and Maria Mad- daleen Een. These were undoubtedly the widow and children of Elias. We have no means of determining whether he lived always in the village or moved in his later years to the home- stead at Bontecoe, where his descendants have lived ever since. In the tax list of 1728 the property is assessed to "Elias Ean's
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RUINS OF THE EAN HOUSE AT BONTECOE
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widow" at £20. Her father, Anthony Crespel, always re- mained at Hurley, and in 1693 he sold a plot of land in this village, probably the lot assigned to him for a home to Hugo Freer, Sen., as is shown by the original deed, in the possession of the writer.
Jan Ean, son of Elias, married, in 1735, Geesje Roosa. In the marriage record, recorded in the church book at Kingston, the bride is set down as being from Marbletown and the groom as born at Hurley and residing "at Mond-Albany, in the juris- diction of Paltz." The clerk who made the record undoubtedly misunderstood the name of the locality and should have written Bontecoe, where, on the farm about 312 miles north of the village, Jan Ean lived and died and his grave is pointed out till the present day, and on this farm his descendants still live.
The children of Jan Ean were Elizabeth, Margaret, Elias, Abraham (born in 1741) and Isaac. We have no account of these sons except Abraham. The others probably died in in- fancy or boyhood. In the old stone house, which has lately tumbled into ruins, on a stone beside the front door appear the initials A. E. and J. E., showing that Jan Ean and his son Abraham together built the house. About two miles down the Wallkill a lot of about ten acres of fertile lowland in one of the great bends of the stream belonged to the Eans as early as 1730, as shown by a paper in possession of the writer. It is called the Half Moon in this paper and retains that name until the present day. It was owned by the Eans until about 1880. Jan Ean died before 1755 and in that year Geesje Ean, widow of Jan, is set down in the list of slave-owners in the town. In a map of the Patent, made in 1760 by Louis Bevier, the house of Geesje Ean is the only one set down. She was a woman of note in the community and is still remembered by the Le- Fevres, who owned the adjoining farm, for her help to the sick.
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Abraham Ean came next in possession of the farm. In 1765 Abraham was married, at Kingston, to Catharine Van Wage- nen, who was born at Hurley and resided at Wagondahl ( Creek Locks) at the time of the marriage, as stated in the record on the church book. In the division in the church between the Cœtus and Conferentia parties Abraham seems to have sided with the latter party and his mother with the Cœtus, as Abra- ham's name appears as one of the subscribers to the Confer- entia church then built, and in 1772 his mother's name appears as a contributor to the building of the second church in our village. -
In the Revolutionary War Abraham Ean served on the fron- tier as a member of Capt. Abraham Deyo's company, Third Ulster County Regiment.
The children of Abraham Ean and Catharine Van Wagenen, his wife, were Elias (born in 1768), Annetje, Rachel, Catha- rine and Peter (born in 1781). The three daughters all mar- ried and located directly across the Wallkill in the Springtown neighborhood. Rachel married David Deyo (grandfather of Rev. Paul T.). Catharine married Jonathan Deyo (grand- father of James E.). Annetje married Benjamin Hasbrouck. Peter, who was the younger son, occupied the farm during his long life. He married Maria Freer. From Peter the farm descended to Abraham Ean, who was an only son, and occu- pied the farm during his lifetime.
Going back now to Elias, son of Abraham, we find that he married Elizabeth Hasbrouck of Springtown. He built the stone house at Middletown, which passed to his son, Elias, Jun., and in the next generation to James Ean. This house, still standing with its gable end to the road, bears, deeply cut in a . stone in the southwest corner of the building, the date of erec- tion, 1789, and the initials of the builders, E. E. (Elias Ean)
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and R. H. B. (Roelif Hasbrouck). A peculiarity of this old house was that the stone oven, instead of being incorporated in the building as in other stone houses was built on a rock across the street, where it stood until modern times. Elias Ean was for a number of years an officer in the church and was a much respected man. His sons were Elias, who occupied the farm after his father's death, and Jacobus, who spent his days in the Middletown neighborhood. A daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1807, married Snyder. She lived to the extraordinary age of 95 years.
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$1523
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CHAPTER XLII
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THE VAN WAGENEN FAMILY AT NEW PALTZ
The first Van Wagenen at New Paltz was Petrus Van Wage- nen, whose father Archa resided at Creek Locks (called by the old people Wagondahl) in a house near the residence of the late Washington LeFevre.
Petrus married, at Kingston, June 15, 1760, Sarah Low, daughter of Simeon Low of New Paltz village. In the mar- riage record on the church book Petrus is set down as residing at Wagondale and his wife as residing at New Paltz. They probably took up their residence at New Paltz immediately after the marriage. Petrus' house, one mile northeast of the village, is still standing, but has not been occupied for many years. Part of the eastern wall has tumbled down. It is the most picturesque ruin anywhere in the vicinity of New Paltz, and the artist's brush of Mr. A. Scott Cox has placed it on can- vass in a very attractive manner. It stands in a field about half a mile northwest of Put Corners.
In the tax list of 1765 Petrus is assessed £8 Ios. In 1767 he, with other New Paltz people of Dutch descent transferred his membership from the church at Kingston to the newly- organized Conferentia church at New Paltz, which had just erected a house of worship about two miles from the village on the west side of the Wallkill. Petrus lived to the extraordi- nary age of 92' years. He was by trade a stone mason. His name appears as one of the enlisted men in the Third Ulster County Regiment in the Revolutionary war.
Petrus and his wife had a large family of children. The fol- lowing are recorded on the church book at Kingston as being
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baptized from 1761 to 1766: Jonathan, Daniel, Ezekiel, Levi. The following are recorded on the church book at New Paltz as being baptized from 1766 to 1778: Catharine, Lucas, Maria, Aert (in English Archa) and Sarah.
In the Revolutionary war Daniel and Levi served in the stockade at Wawarsing and Daniel was in the stockade when it was attacked by Tories and Indians. . Daniel left three sons, all of whom went west. Archa wrote his name Archa P. He married, in 1800, Maria Freer. They lived for a time in the old homestead and for a time on what is now the Abner DuBois farm at Middletown. Archa P. served in the war of 1812 in the 92d Regiment, Heavy Artillery. He was on Lake Ontario and in the fight at Lake Mills in Canada. He re- . ceived 160 acres of land for his services in war, but it was afterwards sold for taxes. Archa P. left two sons, Jonas, who resided at Plutarch, and Alexander; also one daughter, Magdalen, who married Jacob Bedford.
Lucas Van Wagenen, son of Petrus, married Cornelia Mar- kle. They lived in the house still standing just south of the present church-yard ; at least Mrs. Van Wagenen lived there after her husband's death, which occurred in 1811, at the age of 41. The children of Lucas and Cornelia Van Wagenen were Benjamin, born in 1796; Jonathan, born in 1798; Janetje, born in 1800; Maria, born in 1803. We have no account of any of these children except Benjamin and one daughter, who mar- ried James Mitchell of Shawangunk. Benjamin married Cath- arine, daughter of Judge Jonathan DuBois of Springtown. They lived in the building now the Huguenot bank. Benjamin Van Wagenen was a very prominent citizen of our village in his day. There was no lawyer in New Paltz until long after that time and the legal business required in the place was done by Benj. Van. Wagenen.
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CHAPTER XLIII
THE ELTINGE FAMILY IN NEW PALTZ
The following account of the Eltinge family so far as it relates to Jan, the original Eltinge in Ulster county, was de- rived mainly from the researches of Jonathan W. Hasbrouck and is given in his words :
Jan Elten, the ancestor of all the Eltinges in Ulster county, was born in Holland, at Beyle, a dependency of Switchsaelen, in the province of Drenthe, on the 29th day of July (old style) 1632. He was the son of Roelif and Aeltje Elten and known to be of a numerous and respectable family. The first mention I find on record concerning him I find in one of the volumes of the Transactions of the Dutch, at Albany, in a commission, issued Sept. 6, 1665, by authority of E. Andross, Governor, constituting and appointing Capt. Thomas Chambers to be a justice of the peace for Kingston, Hurley and Marbletown and dependencies in Esopus and also for him and George Hall, the sheriff, Cornelius Slecht, W. Nottingham, John Elten (or Jan Eltinge) and John Briggs, or any four or more of them to hold a court of sessions twice a year at Kingston, to hear and determine all appeals and causes, as a court of sessions, accord- ing to law. He must therefore have emigrated from Holland a considerable time prior to that date. In 1680 a certificate, signed by the church officers at Beyle was executed for his benefit, in which he is commended by them to the favorable regard of all to whose knowledge its contents should be made known. This must have been sent to him years after his residence here.
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Being associated, as above, with Cornelius Slecht, one of the first settlers of Esopus, he doubtless became intimate with him and his family, thus forming an acquaintance with Cor- nelius' daughter Jacomyntje, whom he married about the year 1677. The mother of Jacomyntje was Tryntje Tynebrouck. Jacomyntje had had a previous husband, by whom she had four children, one of whom named Tryntje married Solomon DuBois of New Paltz. Jan Elten took out a patent for land in Hurley in -. Jan Eltinge and his wife Jacomyntje had five children, as follows: Roelif, baptized in 1678, who settled in New Paltz and married Sarah DuBois; Cornelius, baptized in 1681, who settled in Marbletown and married Rebecca Van Metten; William, who settled in Kingston and married Jane. LeSaeur; Greitje, married Thos. Wall of Somerset county, N. J., and Aaltje, who married Garret Aertson of Kingston, son of Aert Jacobson, son of Jacob Gerritsen. Notice peculiar changes of names from one generation to another. Gerrit had a brother Jacob. The children of both are called Van Wag- gennegar or Van Wegener.
Jan Eltinge signed the treaty made by the Paltz Huguenots and the Indians, in the spring of 1677, as one of the witnesses. On the 8th of June, 1686, Jan Eltinge and Gerrit Aertson, his son-in-law, and Arien Post bought a lot of land at Rhinebeck ; "Right over against the Rondout Creek" by a small creek called Quaawanoss. This is now the home of Hon. Levi P. Morton. The price paid for the land was 6 suits of stremuater (a kind of coarse cloth), 6 duffels, 4 blankets, 5 kettles, 4 guns, 5 hoes, 5 axes, 10 cases powder, 10 bars of lead, 8 sheets, 8 pairs stockings, 40 fathoms wampum, 2 drawing knives, two adzes, ten knives, half an anker of rum (anker is ten gallons) and one frying pan.
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ROELIF THE FIRST ELTINGE AT NEW PALTZ
Roelif, the eldest son of Jan Eltinge, was baptized October 27, 1678, and married, in 1703, Sarah, daughter of Abm. Du- Bois, the Patentee, who was the son of Louis DuBois, the Patentee. He settled at New Paltz about 1720. We have reason to believe that Roelif lived for several years on Hugue- not street in this village, in a house which stood a short dis- tance south of the old stone house of Isaiah Hasbrouck and was torn down in 1800. In his later days he located a short distance outside the south bounds of the Paltz patent, where Edmund Eltinge resided, on a portion of a patent of land, lying on both sides of the Wallkill, granted to the Patentee, Louis DuBois, and by him conveyed to his sons, Solomon and Louis, Jr., both of whom settled on a part of this tract lying on the west side of the Wallkill. The deed from Solomon and Louis DuBois to Roelif Eltinge was in the possession of Edmund Eltinge and is dated February 4, 1726-7. (The last two figures are written in a fractional form, customary in those days, to indicate the difference of old and new style.) Geo. Van Wagoner is one of the witnesses of this deed. On this tract, a short distance south of Edmund Eltinge's residence, Roelif built a stone house and here ended his days. This house was burned about 1820. Some of the stones of the old house are in the kitchen walls of the present residence. One of these bears the inscription "Anno 1742." This old stone house was erected at different periods and a part of it may have been erected by Roelif Eltinge at a still earlier date. Roelif had four sons, Noah, Josias, Abraham and Johannes, and three daughters, Jacomyntje, Margaretta and Cattrina. We have little further knowledge of any of these children except. Noah, Josias and Margaretta.
Tradition says that when Roelif came from Kingston to
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New Paltz he had a belt of gold around his waist. He was one of the justices of the county before moving to New Paltz. He became a man of much influence in the little settlement, and in 1728 was still one of the justices of the county. Roelif was an executor of the will of his father-in-law, Abm. DuBois, who died in 1731 and was the last survivor of the twelve patentees, as stated on his tombstone, still standing in the old burying- ground in this village. We can not state the exact date of the death of Roelif Eltinge or the place of his burial. His will, a copy of which is in the possession of Jacob Eltinge, is dated in 1745 and probated in 1747. It is in English. In this will, after provision is made for the support of the widow, the son, Noah, is given the homestead on which he afterwards resided and certain lands in the New Paltz Patent. The grandson, Roelif Elting, son of the testator's son Abraham, late of the Potomac, is given certain sums of money and land which is to be sold. His uncles, Josiah and Noah, are made his guar- dians until he arrives at the age of 21 years. The testator's eldest son, John of Mormel (Marbletown), is given certain property and tan pits in the corporation of Kingston; to John and his sons, Peter and Roelif, are given a share in certain lands in the Paltz Patent. The will gives to the testator's son Josiah the property which he had purchased of his brother-in- law, Abraham DuBois, and a share in certain undivided lots in the Patent. The daughter, Jacomyntje, wife of Wm. Code- bec, and the daughter Margaret, wife of Abraham Bevier, are given certain sums of money to be paid by their brothers. The sons, John, Josiah and Noah, are appointed executors.
ROELIF ELTINGE'S CHILDREN
Roelif's sons, Noah and Josias, settled at New Paltz. Noah, who was born in 1721, lived in the homestead of his father on
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the Plains, where his descendants have lived ever since. He married his cousin, Jacomyntje Elting, October 16, 1742. They had but one child, Sarah, who married Dirck Wynkoop. Though his descendants are not numerous, we have more ex- tended information concerning Noah than any man of that day. In 1748 he obtained, in conjunction with Nathaniel Le- Fevre, who lived in the old stone house some distance further north, torn down about 1885, a grant for 3,000 acres of land. This land has remained in the possession of the descendants of each, to a considerable extent, to the present day. This grant was comprised in three tracts, lying on both sides of the Wallkill. The whole, or at least a part of it, had been pre- viously granted to Capt. John Evans, but had been vacated for some cause and the title reassumed by the government. The patent for the 3,000 acres, written on parchment, with the colonial seal, several inches in diameter, attached, was in the possession of Edmund Eltinge. This grant of the 3,000 acres brought a great deal of trouble. It was claimed that the orig- inal Paltz patent covered a part of the tract. Louis Bevier of Marbletown, Col. Abm. Hasbrouck of Kingston and Jacob Hasbrouck, Jr., in behalf of the descendants of the patentees, began proceedings, alleging, furthermore, that Noah had no good title to the homestead, where he resided and which had come to him from his father. Finally the matter was settled without being tried in court. Noah Eltinge and Nathaniel Le- Fevre retained their 3,000 acres, and for a very moderate sum (perhaps enough to pay the expenses of litigation) a release was signed, in 1754, by Jacob Hasbrouck, Jr., Louis Bevier and Col. Abm. Hasbrouck, confirming to Noah Eltinge his title to one lot of 179 acres and another of 22 acres, compris- ing, undoubtedly, the homestead. A full and lengthy account of these matters, drawn up by Noah, was in the possession of Edmund Eltinge.
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The old barn, still standing on this place, is thought to have been built by Roelif Eltinge. It was rebuilt in 1811. The tim- bers are of pitch pine, which formerly grew to some extent along the Plattekill. Noah was the first elder in the Confer- entia church at New Paltz, which was organized in 1767. In 1773 he owned one-seventeenth of all the undivided land in the Paltz patent. The road from Plattekill to New Paltz was laid out in Noah Eltinge's day, and among his documents is one throwing some light on this matter. Noah Eltinge died in 1778, aged 57 years, and is interred in the old graveyard in this village. By his side is the grave of his wife, who died in 1790, aged 75 years. We have said that Noah Eltinge left but one child, a daughter named Sarah, who married Dirck Wynkoop and continued to occupy her father's homestead. Dirck Wynkoop was a prominent man. He was one of the delegates from this county to the conven- tion in Poughkeepsie which decided to adopt the Federal con- stitution. Mr. Wynkoop voted against the measure. During his lifetime he held various important public positions. Dirck and wife left but two children, both daughters, Gertrude, who married Alexander Colden and afterwards David Colden, and Cornelia, who married Peter Eltinge. Peter was the son of William, who was the grandson of William, who was the sec- ond son of the original Jan Eltinge of Kingston. Peter con- tinued to occupy the old homestead up to the time of his death, and it was afterwards occupied by his son Edmund.
JOSIAS ELTING AND HIS DESCENDANTS
The history of the family of Noah Eltinge being brought down to modern times, we will take up that of his brother, Josias (or Josiah), baptized October 12, 1712, and this should take more space, as his descendants are more numerous. There
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