History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 17

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1336

USA > New York > Orange County > History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 17

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" The Clove was celebrated for the attachment of the inhabitants in general to the British interests, who had frequently encouraged and protected parties from New York in their mountainous recesses, sud it was in this defile that the celebrated Capt. Moody, in May, 1781, iu- tercepted an express from Gen. Washington to Congress, communica- ting the result of his interviews with the commanders of the laod and naval forces of France."

Subsequently we find him in New Jersey, at the head of a party of nine men, bearing a commission from Gen. Knyphausen, " to carry off the person of Governor Livingston, or any other person acting in public station" that he might meet with whose arrest he might deem necessary to secure his own safety and that of his party. He failed in the undertaking, and barely escaped capture. When the facts became known Governor Livingston offered a reward of two hundred dollars for his apprehension, or for any or either of his associates, whose names, so far as known, were recited as Caleb Sweesy, James O'Hara, John Moody, and Gysbert Eyberlin. Moody retaliated with a proclamation offering two hundred guineas for the delivery of Livingston alive into the custody of Cunningham, the provost-keeper in New York, and thus the matter ended .* It may be remarked that the dispatches which he captured were designed by Washington to fall into the hands of the British, and had the effect to lead Sir Henry Clinton to withdraw a portion of the forces under Cornwallis, rendering

* " Diary of the Revolution," ii. 308, 466.

REVOLUTIONARY EVENTS.

the capture of the latter at Yorktown a matter of much easier accomplishment.

Of John Mason nothing appears of record further than the fact stated by one of his accomplices uuder arrest that he was a leader of one of the bands which had their headquarters in the Clove, and is said to have been engaged in several robberies and at least once murder. The theme of local interest and history is

THE STORY OF CLAUDIUS SMITHI.

quiring the news from the river, continued, 'Mr. Bodle, you are weary with walking : go to my dwel- ling yonder (directing to a place off the road) and ask my wife to give yon a breakfast, and tell her that I sent you.'" He hated meanness, and when one whom he knew had money refused to lend that which was necessary to Mrs. Col. James McClaughry to relieve her husband, then a prisoner in the hands of the British, it is said that he sent members of his band and abstracted the money the loan of which had beeu denied.

Who was Claudius Smith ? His family is said to have been of English origin, and to have been among At what time Claudius Smith commenced his dep- redations in the interest of the British government is not known ; he is first met in public records in July, 1777, as a prisoner in Kingston jail, in company with one John Brown, " charged with stealing oxen be- longing to the continent." From Kingston he was transferred to the jail at Goshen, from whence it is said he escaped. In anything like a tangible record, he is next met on his capture on Long Island, in the fall of 1778, and the official narrative closes with his exe- cution. The immediate act which led to his arrest was the murder of Maj. Nathaniel Strong, of Blooming- Grove. Immediately following this outrage, and with a view to break up the band, Governor Clinton (Oct. 31, 1778) offered a reward for the apprehension of Claudius and his sons, Richard and James. Claudius fled to Long Island, where he was recognized by Maj. John Brush, at that time visiting Long Island from his residence in Connecticut, who, having previously read Governor Clinton's proclamation, returned across the Sound and made up a party, who visited the island I in the night, seized Smith in his bed, and conveyed him to Connecticut, where he was placed under guard. By direction of Governor Clinton, to whom the arrest was immediately reported, Smith was taken through Connecticut to Fishkill Landing, where he was met by Col. Isaac Nicoll, sheriff of Orange County, and, under guard of Capt. Woodhull's troop of light-horse, taken to Goshen, where he was ironed and placed in jail. His trial was held at the Oyer and Terminer, Jan. 13, 1779, and his execution followed on the 22d of the same month. the early settlers of Brookhaven, L. I., where he was born, and from whence he removed with his father some years anterior to the Revolution, and took up his residence at a place more recently known as Mc- Knight's Mills, in the present town of Monroe, where he grew up to manhood, married, and had sons of suf- ficient age to unite with him in his predatory excur- sions. It is not necessary that his identification should be made more complete, and an attempt to do so, in the absence of positive evidence, might result in injustice. It may safely be stated, however, that the family of Smiths were early settlers in and gave their name to Smith's Clove. Claudius is described as "a man of large stature and powerful nerve, of: keen penetration ; one upon whom nature had be- stowed abilities worthy to be exerted in a better cause. He conducted his expeditions with such cautiousness as scarcely to be suspected until in the very execu- tion of them ; and if a sudden descent was made upon him, by some bold stroke or wily manœuvre he would successfully evade his pursuers and make his escape." That he had the credit of doing much that he did not do is no doubt true; murder was not one of his offenses, although murder was committed; he was a " cow-boy," a stealer of horses and cattle, perhaps of silverware, and money, if he could find it, and as a thief he was tried and executed at Goshen on the 22d of January, 1779. his indictment being " for burglary at the house of John Earle; for robbery at the house of Ebenezer Woodhull; for robbery of the dwelling and still-house of William Bell." Whatever other sins he may have committed were not charged against Smith's associates were greater criminals than him- self. Five of them, viz. : "Matthew Dolson, John Ryan, Thomas Delamar, John Gordon, and Amy Au- gor, late Amy Jones," were executed with him. His son James is believed to have been executed at Go- shen soon after his father, in company with James Flewwelling and William Cole; his son William was shot in the mountains before his father was executed, and also Benjamin Kelley, another member. Not one of the band was ever tried for murder, although mur- der was committed by them in the case of Maj. Strong, and also in the case of one John W. Clark, who re- sided near the Stirling Iron-Works." Richard, the him. He had good qualities. It is said " that the poor man found in him a friend ready to share both his meal and his purse, and it is believed that much of what he extracted from the wealthy he bestowed upon the indigent." He was hospitable. "The late Judge Bodle, of Tompkins County, a former resident of Orange, related a circumstance which occurred with himself. On the morning following the capture of Fort Montgomery by the British, he was pursuing his way homeward from the neighborhood of the dis- aster, when he suddenly met Claudius Smith in the road. They knew each other. Judge Bodle was per- plexed ; to escape was impossible, and putting on a bold front he approached Claudius, who addressed * The following is from the Fishkill Packet, April 28, 1779: " We hear him with a friendly good-morning, and after in- from Goshen that a horrible murder was committed near the Stirling

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

youngest son of Claudius, with several members of the band, escaped to Nova Scotia after peace was de- clared. Traditions of the mode of procedure and operations of these men are numerous and varied. One of the best authenticated is supplied by Mr. Quinlan in his " History of Sullivan County," who recites the story of the attack on Henry Reynolds, of Monroe (subsequently of Sullivan County). On one occasion the "avengers of Claudius Smith" sur- rounded Reynolds' house and endeavored to effect an entrance, but the doors and windows were securely bolted and barred. Determined not to be baffled, they got upon the roof, and were descending inside the wide, old-styled chimney, when one of the family threw a basket of' feathers on the fire, and the in- truders were literally smoked out, and gave up further operations. A second attempt, in July, 1782, was more successful. Benjamin Kelley, Philip Roblin, and several others went to Reynolds' house in the night, and pretending that they were a detachment from Washington in search of deserters, he opened the door to them. They had scarcely entered when they discovered their true character by attacking Reynolds, who endeavored to escape. The noise aroused the family, consisting of Reynolds' wife, seven children, and a lad who lived with him, but they were powerless in such hands. In their pres- ence Reynolds was cut and wounded with knives and swords, and finally hung by the neck on the trammel- pole of his fireplace. They then proceeded to search the house for valuables, and, in their absence from the room, Reynolds' daughter, Phebe, cut the rope and released her father and got him upon a bed. Re-

Iron-Worka oo the night of Saturday, the 26th of March, by a party of villaina, five or six in number, the principal of whom was Richard Smith, eldest surviving son of the late Claudius South, of infamous memory, hia eldest son having been shot last fall at Smith's Clove, io company with several other villains, by one of our scouting parties sent out in search of them. These bloody miscreants, it seems, that night intended to murder two men, who had shown some activity and resolution in appre- bending these robbers and amiderera who infested the neighborhood. They first went to the house of John W. Clark, near the iron-works, whom they dragged from his house and then shot him, and observing aome remains of life in him, one of them saying, ' he is not dead enough yet,' ahot him through the arm again and left him. He lived some houra after, and gave an account of their names and behavior. They then went to the honse of -, who, hearing some noise they made iu approaching, got up and stood on his defense with his gun aod bayonet fixed, in a corner of his little log cabin. They burst open the door, Unt seeing him stand with his gun were afraid to enter, and thought proper to march off. The following was pinned to Clark's coat :

"" A Warning to the Rebels .-- You are hereby warned at your peril to desist from hanging any more friends to government as you did Clandios Smith. You are warned likewise to nse James Smith, James Flewwel- ling, and William Cole well, and ease their irons, for we are determined to hang six for one, for the blood of the innocent cries aloud for vengeance. Your noted friend, Capt. Williams, and his crew of robbers and murderers, we have got in our power, and the blood of Claudius Smith shall be re- paid. There are particular companies of us who belong to Col. Butler's army, Indians as well as white men, and particularly numbers from New York, that are resolved to be avenged on you for your cruelty and murder. We are to remind yon that you are the beginners and aggressora, for by your crnel oppressions and bloody actions yon drive us to it. This is the first, and we are determined to pursue it on your heads and leaders to the last, till the whole of yon are murdered.'"

turning to the room and discovering what had been done, they whipped the daughter with the rope until they thought she was disabled, and again hung Rey- nolls to the trammel-pole, from which his heroic daughter again rescued him. They then flew at Rey- nolds with knives and swords, and only ceased their work when they supposed he was dead. After de- stroying Reynolds' papers, and taking whatever of value that he had, they left the building, and after fastening the door on the outside set it on fire. The daughter, Phebe, again proved a heroine by extin- guishing the fire. Then, finding that her father was not yet dead, she devoted herself to him and suc- ceeded in stanehing his wounds. With the coming of morning she started ont and alarmed the neighbor- hood, and shortly after sunrise a company of armed men was in pursuit of the marauders, who were fol- lowed to the mountains and overtaken. A well-di- rected shot from a man named June wounded one of them, Benjamin Kelley. His body was subsequently recovered and identified by a suit of Quaker clothes which he had stolen from Reynolds. Meanwhile a physician had reached Reynolds' house and dressed his wounds. He was found to be wounded in over thirty places. One of his ears were so nearly severed that it hung down to his shoulder. It was put back in its place, but healed in such a way as to leave him dis- figured for life. One of his hands was also so badly cut that he never recovered its use. He lay for weeks on the brink of the grave, but ultimately recovered, and lived to see his eighty-fifth year. Phebe, who was then only twelve years of age, married Jeremiah Drake after her removal to Sullivan County, where she died in 1853. It may be added that Phebe's mother was brought to confinement by the excitement of the ter- rible night through which she had passed, and that the daughter then born to her (Polly) subsequently became the wife of Dr. Blake Wales .*

From tradition we turn to the written record,-the " confession of William Cole, taken at New Barba- does, March 29, 1779," which was as follows:

" William Cole saith that about the 3d day of April, 1777, he, ac- companied by John Babcock, William Jones, and John Ellison, at -, where he enlisted in Col. John Bayard's regiment (loyalists), in which he continued until the battle ef Fert Montgomery. That at the anrreader of the fort, and at the departure of the British troops from there, he, the said William Cole, and one Jamies Babcock, being left sick about two miles from the fort at Moses Clements', Esq., went to the house of the said Jamea Babcock at Stirling, where the said James Babcock continues (baving in a short time thereafter delivered himself np to justice). That from theuce he, the said William Cole, went to Pompton Plains, where he resided about a month, being suspected of having been with the enemy. That frem Pompton he returned to the Clove, and from thence, in company with and by the persuasion of one David Babcock and one Jonathan Gage, he went to New York. That some time in the latter end of last fall he left New York in company with Thomas Ward, John Everett. Jacob Acker, James Cowen, George alias Thomas Harding, David Babcock, James Twaddle, Martinus Lawson, and Peter Lawson, aod a certain John Mason, who was the head of the gang. That he parted company with them at the Clove about a mile beyond Sidman's, being something indisposed, and re- miained in the house of Edward Roblin in the Clove, while the above-

* " Ilistory of Sullivan County," 472, etc.

SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND.

mentioned persons robbed Mr. Erskine and Mrs. Sidman. That the above-named George Harding made a present of Mrs. Erskine's gold watch to David Matthews, Esq , mayor of New York, and that Mr. Er- skine's tifle was given by Mason to Lord Catheart. That the same party to- gether with Weat, and Banta, and Richard and James Smith, sons ol (lau- dius Smith, and a certain Nathaniel Biggs, were the persons who robbed Muster-Master General Ward, &e., for which they received one hundred girineas from Lord Catheatt, as he, the said Cole, was informed by them on their return from New York. That just before he was taken he met - with John Mason, David Babcock, Thomas Ward, aml Richard Smith, near the bridge commonly called the Dwans, who threatened vengeance for the execution of Clandins Smith, from whence be conjectures them to have been the persons who murdered Mr. Clark ; soon after that Dat- vid Babcock, Richard Smith, and Jonas Ward, with about eleven uf Gen. Burgoyne's men, were the persons that fired upon Maj, Goebbius, some time in Jast January, as he was informed by said persons, in New York after the fact. That as he heard from them, one Henry McManus, who generally had his haunts near Stirling, one William Stagg, and one or two of Burgoyne's men, were the persons who robbed a certain Light- body, towards Wallkill, and that David Babcock and Richard Smith bright two horses, robbed from Nathaniel Serly, in Smith's Clove, into 1 New York, in January last, which they sold to John Day, who for- meily lived in Tine Valley. That when he robbed Mr. Ackerman he was accompanied by George Dull, Jacob Low, James Flewwelling, all of whom formerly lived at Wallkill. That the above robbery was the only one in which he was ever concerned in, except that he took Hen- drick Odell's gun.

" That the persons who harbor these gangs are Benjamin Demarest, Tuuis Helme, John Harring, John Johnston (under mountain); William Conkling, Elisha Babcock; Elisha Babcock, Ir., John Dobbs (near -); Edward Roblin, in the Clive; Peter Nail, Benjamin Kelley, and Powers -, all in the Clove; Eilward Enness amt Joho Winter in -; Peter Acker in Paskock ; and Jacobus Prak. That there is a cave dug under ground by the sons of Isaac Mayhee and on the said Maybee's land, about half a nule from John Harring's, and au- other nt about a quarter of a mile distant from the former, dug by the same persons, and a third about three miles from the house of Joseph Wessels in the Clove, and well known by Roblins in the Clove, each of which may contain about eight persons, where thes- robbers generally resort ; and that Jolin King, Jacob Acker, and John Staat are now in the Clove at -, or in the houses around it. That Harding, Everett, he As soon as the weather grows warm, intend to plunder Col. - at Wallkill, to burn Col. Nicolls' house, the gaut, and some other hunses in and near Goshen, and to remain in the county for that purpose. That there is a gang of the same kind on the east side of Diplson's River, whose names me Mandeville -, Peter Wood, William Iulliker, Wil- liam Danforth, Aaron Williams, James Houston, and others, who plun- deved and brought some cattle and horses from Tarrytown to New York the day before the sail Cole left it."

" William Welcher says that some time last January, Wiert Banta and others applied to him to go with them to take Governor Livingston, for whose capture a reward of two hundred guineas was offered by the mayor of New York, which he refused. That he never was concerned in any robberies but that for which he is condemmal. Mentions the same per- sous who harbor gangs as named in Cole's confession, and besides, one Arie Ackerman, at Paskock, where the wife of one of those robbers (John Mason) lives."

It was for many years a current belief that the val- uable plunder obtained by these bands was buried in the mountains, and among other articles a silver stand, a quantity of pewter plates, and a large number of mus- kets. The story of searches for the buried articles by the grandsons of Claudius Smith, and also by sons of one of the Roblins, is told with no little minuteness of detail, but there is no evidence that anything more than guns were ever found. Like the buried treas- ures of Kidd, they have failed to be revealed to the earnest gaze of credulous searchers. It is apparently - - the fact that they never stole much besides cattle, as there was very little of gold or silver, money or stocks, in the possession of the people whose houses they | The English government issued its famous Orders in 6

visited. They may have become infamous, but they were never made rich by the business in which they engaged. It is said that their operations were con- tinued until the permanent encampment of the Amer- ican army in the Highlands (October, 1781) rendered their operations extremely hazardous, and finally ceased on the exchange of the preliminary articles of peace (1782), which obliged the British officers in New York to withdraw the encouragement which they had previously extended.

CHAPTER VIL

SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND-WAR WITH MEXICO.

PERHAPS less is known, at the present time, in re- gard to the second war with England, commonly called the war of 1812, than there is in regard to the Revo- lution. Two reasons may be assigned for this,-the Revolution gave birth to the nation, and participants in it have commanded that respect, and its influence upon the world has been such, that the most thorough attention has been devoted by historians to the collec- tion of facts and records with a view to preserve its most minute details ; and, second, whatever of docu- mentary evidence exists touching any of its details is accessible to those wishing to make examinations. The second war has not been so fortunate. Its sue- cesses were mainly through the navy on the ocean. But two triumphs occurred on land of any consid- erable importance-the victories at Plattsburgh and New Orleans-to compensate for many humilia- tions, not the least of which was the capture by the British of the capital of the nation, and the burning of the national records, an event which, by drawing from the States whatever records they possessed to supply the place of those which were thus destroyed, has rendered them almost wholly inaccessible.

The causes of the war were manifold. It was not without some prophetic accuracy that Franklin, re- plying to congratulations on the success of the colo- nies in their struggle for independence, remarked, "Say, rather, the war of the Revolution-the war for Independence is yet to be fought," for at no time until after the war of 1812 did England fully recognize the independence of the United States. There was a constant friction between the two governments, grow- ing out of the weakness of the one and the powerful- ness of the other, which culminated in the impress- ment of American seamen and the enforcement of the claimed right to search every vessel bearing the flag of the United States and the involvement of the United States in the war between England and France. This involvement did not grow out of any act of the United States government further than was necessary for the protection of American commerce.

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Council, which declared that all American vessels going to and from the ports of France and her allies, without first touching at or elearing from an English port, should be considered lawful prizes. These or- ders provoked the Berlin and Milan Decrees, on the part of France, by which all vessels that had touched at an English port, or submitted to be searched by an English eruiser, were pronounced to be the property of France ; while British goods, wherever found, were made subject to seizure and confiscation.

Under such circumstances the American govern- ment could not remain inactive and allow its com- merce to be ruled or ruined by the policy or pride of Britain or of France. Accordingly, in December, 1809, Congress resolved, as a matter of protection, to lay an embargo upon all American vessels and mer- chandise. This embargo prohibited American vessels from sailing from foreign ports, and all foreign ships from carrying away American cargoes. Its effeet was suddenly to suspend commerce, to expose thousands of merchants to the risk of bankruptcy, and to check at onee the flow of produce from the interior to the sea-board,-results which were severely felt by the people and which tried their patriotism to the utmost. The navy of the United States was actively employed in enforcing this embargo on the coast, and in the course of its operations brought on the historic con- test between the "President" and the "Little Belt," on the 16th of May, 1811, which tended materially to the alienation of the nations. " In the winter of 1812, a plot on the part of English agents to sever the Amer- ican Union was revealed to the government, and at a later day the determination of the English ministry to adhere to her Orders in Council was formally com- municated to the President. At the same time the claim to impress English seamen out of American ships on the high seas was maintained in theory, while in practice the impressment was constantly ex- tended to natives, the boarding officers claiming that the seaman who failed to prove that he was an Amer- ican should be seized as an Englishman." From this determination there could be but one appeal, and on the 18th of June, 1812, Congress formally declared war against England.

Throughout the controversy preceding the declara- tion of war, and in the subsequent efforts to maintain it, the great majority of the people of the county were unwavering in their support of the national authori- ties. From first to last, by resolutions passed in con- ventions, by the expression of their sentiments through the ballot-box, by the prompt offer of volunteers, and by the contribution of men to actual service, they evinced their purpose to resist the "attacks of domes- tie enemies and the insolent aggressions of foreign powers." The first formal manifestation of local sen- timent occurred in 1807, when the "Republican Blues," of Newburgh, tendered their services to the Governor of the State, as volunteers. This was fol- lowed by the overwhelming defeat of the Federal

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History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 17

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.) Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1336

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1336