History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 2

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 2

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

556, 557

Alfred W+lls. facing 537

.. Thomas Thorne, 558

Juo. C. Walling.

between 558, 559

Walter II. Sayer

558, 559

Jno. J. Heard. facing 559

W. B. Tuthill.

5GO

G. Thew .facing 560 =

between 560, 561

stephen Smith

560, 561

Robert Young.

= 500, 5G1

Tuo S. Ryerson

5G0, 561

John S. Crane

560, 561

Chas, F. Johnson

560, 361

Eilsun Coleman

.facing 56I

Geo, Mapes ..

. 561

= John T. Ackley

facing 5G2

= Adrian Holbert between 562, 563

Noah Gregory

562, 56.1

Richard L. Wood

562, 563

N. C. Colenun.

562, 563

Jas. M. Bull facing 563

WARWICK.

Pintrait of Win. H. Seward 571

Ezra Sanford facing 604

.. Benjamin Sayer ..

Edward L. Welling facing 60G

Jeffrey Wisner. between 606, 607

James Burt. facing.607

James Wheeler

Gabriel Wisner

between GOS, 609

Gabriel Houston 608, 609

Isaac V. Wheeler.

facing G09

A. J. Burt .between 610, 611

John Willcox

610, 611

Thomas Welling

610, GIL

William H. Houston.

G10, GII

J. E. Waterbury facing 612

Nathaniel R. Feagles between 612, 613

Gardner K. Nanny. 612, 613

IIezekiah Hoyt facing C13

CHESTER.

l'ortrait of John T. Johnson

PAGE facing 620

Jesse Rue ...

James Durland

: James J. Board.

between 624, 625

Minard Sutton

624, 625

= Nathaniel Roe.

= 624, 625

$1 624, 025

John W. King

626, 127

R. W. Colfax

between 626, 627

.facing 627

John B. Tuthill

W'n. M. Rysdyk between 628, 629

Abram Demerest

628, 629

BLOOMING-GROVE.

Portrait of J. K. Oakley facing 643

= Thomas N. Hulst.

044

N. D. Woodhull ...

645

Nathan HI. White.

646

Edmund S. Howell

between 046. 647

Hezekiah lowell.

646, 647

Alden Guldsmith fixing #45

Silas R. Horton. between 645, 640

Anselin Helme. 648, 640

= C. S. Marvin

648, 649

= Jesse Bull facing 640

HAMPTONBURGH,

Portrait of Charles MI. Thompson. facing 652

Daniel H. Bull

654

Vincent Booth

Solomon T. Smith.

65S

MINISINK.

Hartwell's School.

faring 607

Portrait of IJulet Clark 673

J. C. Wister

674

Peter Werry.

between 674, 675

Peter Kimber. 674, 175

= MI. S. Jlayne. facing 675

WAWAYANDA.

Portrait of O. n. Carpenter

facing 690

George W. Horton (91

DEERPARK.

Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Deerpark.

Portrait of Edward J. Flynn ... 7:

HI. Il. Farnum. facing 733

Eli Van Inwegen.

739

l'eter P. Swartwont

150

= George Cuddeback.

Moses Van Inwegen ...

Nathan Skinner .facing 752.

41 Levi Van Etten. 773

CORNWALL.

Portrait of Alfred C. Roe "65

J. Silliman.

770

Edward P. Roe.

William S. Brown

744

Julın Orr

William Orr

Residence of William Orr. .facing 78G

Portrait of B. S. Ketcham .. between 7~6, 757

Charles II. Mead .. faring Tel

MONROE.

Portrait of Peter Townsend. facing 85

Morgan Shuit ..

Peter l'. Parrott .facing 806

= Alex. Thonson. between 50G, 807

Peter Turner. 80G, 807

Peter B. Buslı. .facing SUx

John Goff. .between 808, 800

Gilbert T. Smith.

808, 809

J. Horton Thompson.

808, 800

Isaac If. Thompson 808, 809

Jantes Wilkes. facing 809

123

Ira Bull.

C. B. Seely

Jas. W. Hoyt

OUTLINE PLAN OF ORANGE COUNTY NEW YORK

NEW YORK ONT

CRAWFORD

Brookyine

Onisville

flowers

Bushkill

/RosesAuin Portilifony

Mount, Hope ro

PO4

HØP

DEER

PA-

Fiuchill+

Denton

Binfeng Water

Apyrow Bush

NuHollow

Slate HIN

Houesville

Rudgeburt PO

RIVER

ERIE

Johnsons PO

Bushville'

Rutgers

Centre Puan

VestiownPO

INE

Liberty Corners W

Pochuch

BloomsCo

LLO

L.VER SINK

RAILWAY

VentervillePo

hillsburgh

mathi's

Boudinotherer

MIDLAND

MPE NEESYLVANIA

Bid Fots

SULLIVAN CO MONGARPRIVEE

Fair Oaks Stay FairoaksPOR

Burenvite

Paradise

Shon an

BRANCH ---

NOINEW JER

Punt

HISTORY

ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

CHAPTER I. ABORIGINAL HISTORY.

THE aboriginal history of Orange County may be properly dated from Sept. 15, 1609, on the morning of which day Henry Hudson rode at anchor in his ship, the "Half-Moon," in the waters of the river now bearing his name, immediately above the Highlands. With the natives of the country which he was ex- ploring his experience was varied. Below the High- lands he made captive two young men, intending to take them to Holland, but when rounding West Point they sprang on the rocky headland and called from the shore to their captor in scorn. Above the Highlands " the people of the country," as he called them, visited his ship and brought some small skins with them, which were "bought for knives and trifles." Subsequently, when anchored off Stony Point, "the people of the mountains" came on board, and when leaving a conflict was brought on which resulted in the death of two of their number, and before reaching the Manhattan islands eight of the aboriginal lords had fallen under the power of Eu- ropeau falcons.

Through the early Dutch navigators who followed Hudson's path more definite information is obtained of the people whom he visited, and also the names which were given to the clans or chieftaincies into which they were divided. At "Haverstroo" they were called Haverstroos ; from Stony Point to the Dans- Kammer they were Waoranecks,-subsequently called " the Murderer's Creek Indians ;" from the Dans- Kammer north through Ulster County, and west through the valley of the Wallkill, they were War- runawonkongs ; in the district drained by the Dela- ware and its tributaries they were Minsis or Minisinks. These names were not those which the natives had given as belonging to themselves, but were those which had been given by them to the Dutch as the names of the streams on which they lived. The War- ranawonkong was the Wallkill; the Waoraneek, the Murderer's Creek.

Later the tribal and national organizations of this

people appeared. It would be no violation of fact to say that their political constitution was similar to our own. They had villages or towns, counties or en- larged cantons, tribes or states, nations or united tribes. Each in its sphere was independent, yet the whole strongly and firmly bound together. The sub- tribes or villages south of Stony Point were Unulac- tos, or the Turkey tribe ; those north were Minsis, or the Wolf tribe, with territorial jurisdiction extending through the Minisink country of Pennsylvania and New Jersey ; south of the Minsis they were Unamis, or the Turtle tribe .* The tribes named constituted the Lenni-Lenape nation, which held its council-fire at what is now Philadelphia. From the Unamis was selected invariably, by the ruling chiefs of the other tribes, the king or sagamore of the nation,-a king both with and without power ; a sovereign whose rule was perpetuated only through the love of his people ; a monarch the most polished, the most liberal, the poorest of his race; one who ruled by permission, who received no salary, who was not permitted to own the cabin in which he lived or the land he culti- vated, who could receive no presents that did not be- come the property of the nation, yet whose larder and treasure-chest were never empty.

The history of the Lenapes, briefly stated, is, that they were the head of the Algonquin nations at the time of the discovery, but, by a succession of wars with the Dutch, the English, and the Iroquois, were compelled some time about 1670 to yield to the latter and become a "nation of women,"-i.e., a nation without power to make war or peace on their own account, or to sell or convey lands. In this condition they remained until 1755 (having in the mean time become generally known as the Delawares), when they threw off the yoke of subjugation, and under alliances with the Shawanoes, Mingoes, etc., were enabled to place themselves at the head of the West- ern nations, and contest every inch of soil east of the Mississippi.

* Tribal organizations were known by the totems or emblems which they painted on their cabius, their persons, etc., as the turkey, the wolf, the turtle.

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

But while these facts were being ascertained,- years before many of them were known,-there came the hurrying to and fro of armed men, and the terri- bly echoing battle-cry of the woodland lords, " Woach, Woach, Ha, Ha, Hach, Woach !" with which the set- tlers subsequently became familiar. The Dutch be- gan their settlement at New Amsterdam (now New York) in 1626. A few years later, settlements were commenced at Paulus' Hook (now Jersey City ), then called Pavonia, and at Breucklen, now the city of Brooklyn, and a few small neighborhoods were scat- tered along the river north of Paulus' Hook. These settlements brought with them frictions of opposing customs, which, in 1643, resulted in conflicts and massacres in the vicinity of New Amsterdam, by which the Dutch were driven from every foothold outside of their fort, and the whole country from the Neversink highlands to the hills and valleys of the Tappans was again in the possession of its aboriginal lords.

Passing from these fields of conflict to the north of the Hndson highlands, from 1656 to 1664 the territory of the Warranawonkongs became the theatre of war, broken by occasional periods of peace. Whatever may have been the earlier trading-posts, permanent settlement was not commenced among that tribe until 1652, and may be said to have been soon after aban- doned until 1656. As in other places, the settlers de- voted the largest portion of their time and means to the purposes of trade, and, with a view to secure the largest amount of furs, imprudently made free with the sale of brandy and other liquors, under the influ- ence of which the Indians became troublesome and resorted to violence. Stirring events soon clustered around the infant colony at Atkarkarton (now Kings- ton). A stockaded village and a fort were found necessary for protection; but even these proved of little avail, for on the 7th of June, 1663, the Indians entered the gates of the villages, two of which, known as the "New" and the "Old," were then in occupa- tion. Ostensibly seeking trade, they scattered them- selves among the houses of the Dutch, until at a given signal their vocation was changed to that of destruc- tion. At a single blow the New Village was destroyed. "Some people on horseback escaped and reached the Old Village, but their arrival was the signal of attack upon the latter, for scarce had the alarm been given when the Indians uttered their war-whoop and com- menced the work of death. The people were mur- dered in their houses with axes and tomahawks, and by firing on them with guns and pistols." Women and children were seized and carried off' prisoners ; houses were plundered, and men, rushing to the de- fense of their families, were shot down by foes con- cealed in their own dwellings. To aid in the work of destruction, the Indians set fire to the village on the windward side. The flames spread rapidly, but when at their height the wind suddenly changed to the west and prevented further devastation. The panic occasioned by the sudden attack having subsided, the

settlers rallied and drove the Indians out. By even- ing all was still again, and the bereaved inhabitants kept mournful watch during the night. Twenty-one lives were lost, nine were wounded, and forty-five carried off captive ; the New Village was annihilated, and at the Old Village twelve houses were burned .*

Immediately on the receipt of the intelligence of this disaster, Stuyvesant dispatched Col. Martin Kre- gier with a company of soldiers to assist the settlers. Kregier arrived at the Ronduit on the 4th of July. In a few days five Mohawk and Mohican chiefs arrived from Fort Orange, and by their mediation some of the Dutch captives were released ; but the Warranawon- kongs would not listen to propositions for peace unless the Dutch would pay " for the land named the Great Plot," and reward them with presents within ten days. The Dutch commander replied by sending out scouting-parties, who succeeded in bringing in a few prisoners, from whom it was learned that the Indians had retreated to their castle ; and thither it was deter- mined to follow them. The expedition reached its destination on the evening of the 26th of July. The castlet was a formidable structure. It was " defended by three rows of palisades, and the houses in the fort encircled by thick cleft palisades with port-holes in them, and covered with bark of trees ;" in form it was quadrangular, but the angles were "constructed be- tween the first and second rows of palisades," the third row of palisades standing "full eight feet off from the others towards the interior," the whole being " on the brow of the hill," surrounded by table-land. But the object of the expedition was not accom- plished. Warned of the approach of their enemy, the Indians retreated to the Shawangunk Mountains and took their captives with them. From a captured squaw it was learned that the Indians were some four miles distant, and a force was sent thither ; but when they arrived at the designated place, it was found that they had again retreated. Kregier, however, de- stroyed the Kahanksen castle by fire, cut down the corn-fields which the Indians had planted, and de- stroyed "about a hundred pits full of corn and beans," which had been preserved from the crop of the previous year. This work accomplished, he re- turned to Wiltwyck.#

The settlers now engaged in harvesting their grain, and the soldiers guarded them while at work. Offen- sive operations were not resumed until September, when a force of fifty men was sent out to reduce a new castle which the Indians were said to be erecting,

* The New Village was about three miles from the Old Village, and the Ronduit about the same distance.

The location of this fort, or palisaded village, is defined in the boundary lines of lands conveyed by the treaty of 1665; " Lying and being to the west and southwest of a certain creek or river called by the name of Kahanksen, and so up to the head thereof where the old fort was."

# By a formal charter of date May 16, 1661, the settlement was ordered to be called " Wiltwyck," or Indiau Village. The English changed the name to Kingston.

LAND TITLES-FIRST SETTLEMENTS.

situated "about four hours farther than their first fort," which had been burned. The expedition reached its destination on the 5th of September. The Indians were taken by surprise, but made a stout resistance. They were busy completing their fort, and had left their arms at their houses, " about a stone's throw from the fort." Alarmed by a squaw, who had discovered the approach of the Dutch, they rushed to secure their arms, but were only partially successful so closely were they pursued. Retreating across the kill, they threw back the Dutch fire with such spirit that it was found necessary to send a strong party to dislodge them. "In this attack the Indians lost their chief Papequanaehan, fourteen warriors, four women, and three children." On the part of the Dutch three were killed and wounded. Thirteen Indians were taken prisoners, and twenty-three Dutch captives released. The Dutch found plunder sufficient to " well fill a sloop," but were obliged to leave it. Everything was destroyed that could be. "The fort was a perfect square, with one row of palisades set all around, being about fifteen feet above and three feet below ground," but it was not completed. Two angles of "stout pali- sades, all of them about as thick as a man's body, having two rows of port-holes, one above the other," were done, and when surprised the Indians were "busy at the other angle." The victorious expedition re- turned to the settlement laden with spoil, and the Indians fled to the mountains to brood over their defeat and loss.

On the 1st of October another expedition was sent out on the same route, and arrived at the fort last de- stroyed on the 2d. The Indians had meanwhile re turned to it and thrown the bodies of their dead com- rades into five pits, from which "the wolves had rooted up and devoured some of them. Lower down on the kill four other pits were found containing bodies ; and farther on three Indians with a squaw and child lay unburied and almost wholly devoured by wolves." A terrible picture of desolation was spread out on either hand where but a few days before the native lords had exulted in their strength, but who now, crushed and broken, had retreated southward among their kindred Minsis. The Dutch forces completed the de- struction of the fort ; the palisades were pulled down, the wigwams burned, and all the corn cut up and cast into the kill.

The Warranawonkongs, upon whom this ehastise- ment had principally fallen, solicited peace in the fall, and an armistice was granted. They had suffered severely ; their villages, from Wawayanda to Esopus, were not withont mourners ; their store-houses were rifled, and their crops destroyed. Nor were their allies, the Waoranecks, more fortunate. Although their territory had not been invaded nor their villages burned, they were not the less subdued; the embers of their forest worship, which had for ages been lighted on the Dans-Kammer, were extinguished forever. In the spring following Sewackenamo, in conference at

Fort Amsterdam, lifted up his voice in prayer to his God-BACHTAMO-that "something good" might be concluded with the Dutch, and there executed a treaty, by the terms of which all that had passed was to be for- given and forgotten ; the lands claimed by the Dutch, and now conquered by the sword, were to remain the property of the conquerors, and the vanquished were not to approach the Dutch settlements with arms. This treaty was ratified (May 16, 1664) amid the roar of cannon, and was celebrated by a public thanksgiving. With its conclusion was also closed the struggle of the aboriginal clans for the possession of their ancient seats on the western slope of the valley of the Hud- son, from the Katskills to the sca. The retreating footsteps of some of their warriors were yet to be marked on advancing frontiers by blazing torch and branding tomahawk, but those who remained in the vicinity of the "river of the mountains" awaited in peace the granting of title-deeds to their European successors. Meanwhile, however, those who survived the conflict with the Dutch, more especially the Min- sis, in the western part of the county and the adjoining territory, were greatly strengthened by additions to their number, first in 1692, and again in 1694, of large colonies of Shawanoes who located in western Ulster and Orange. It is not impossible that these immi- grants left behind them in their western march names which have been ascribed to earlier periods. How- ever this may be, it is certain that from the nursery- beds of the Shawanoes in Orange went forth to the West some of the most able chiefs and warriors of that tribe.

CHAPTER IL

LAND TITLES-FIRST SETTLEMENTS.

"THE lands which I intend shall be first planted are those upon the west side of Hudson's River, at or adjoining to the Sopes," wrote Governor Nicolls in 1664. With the exception of the " Great Plot," now occupied by the city of Kingston, embracing about four thousand acres, which had been given to Goy- ernor Stuyvesant by the Warranawonkong chiefs "to grease his feet," the lands to which Governor Nicolls refers were the first to which Europeans had a title, and were " conquered by the sword." They are de- scribed in the treaty of 1665 as " a certain parcel of land lying and being to the west and southwest of a certain creek or river called by the name of Kahanksen, and so up to the head thereof, where the old fort was ; and so with a direct line from thence through the woods and across the meadows to the Great Hill, lying and being to the west or southwest thereof, which Great Hill is to be the true west or southwest bounds of the said lands, and the creek called Kahanksen the north or northeast bounds of the said lands." In other words, they were the lands that Kregier and his

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Dutch troops had ravaged in 1663. They were limited in extent, embracing scarce three townships in south- western Ulster, and were specially designated by the Indians as Shawangunk, " the white man's country," as distinguished from the lands to which they retained the title.

From this extreme position on the northwest bounds of the present county chronology takes us to the ex- treme south of the old county of Orange, " the Chris- tian patented lands of Haverstraw." Here Balthazer de Hlart and his brother Jacob, immigrants from Holland at an earlier date, prior to July 31, 1666, purchased from the Indians "all that traet of land lying on the west side of Hudson's River called Hay- erstraw, being on the north side of the hills called Verdrietig Hook, on the south side of the Highlands, on the east side of the mountains, so that the same is bounded by Hudson's River and round about by the high mountains." Presuming that the tract was in- eluded in the boundaries of New Jersey, he obtained from Carteret and the Council of that province a patent,* and transferred his interest to Nicholas De- puy and Peter Jacobs Marius. On subsequent pur- chase and patent he acquired (April 10, 1671) the " parcels of land called by the Indian names of New- asink, Yandakah, Caquaney, and Aquamak, bounded on the west by a creek called Menisakcungue, on the east and north by Hudson's River, and on the south by the mountains," which became the property of his brother Jacob ; and also a tract " known by the name of Ahequerenoy," which, with a portion of the pre- vious purchase, came to the possession of Hendrick Ryker, the whole becoming the basis of the boun- daries of all subsequent grants in the district.

Turning again to the north of the district, we find that Louis Du Bois, a Huguenot pioneer, driven thither by the pending persecutious of the people of his faith in France, located, with some of his friends, at Esopus in 1660. Contributing the captivity of his wife and children to the Indian war of 1663, he sub- sequently induced several families of his countrymen, who were more recent immigrants, to unite with him in establishing a French town. Twelve men, known as the "Twelve Patentees," were selected to obtain title to lands, who, after an examination of the country, pur- chased from the Indian proprietors (May 26, 1677) a tract of thirty-six thousand acres, lying immediately south of the " Redoute Creek," as the Warranawon- kong came to be called. On the 29th of September following a patent was obtained from Governor An- dros, in the name of " Louis du Bois and his partners, that is, Christian Doyau, Abraham Hasbroueq, André le Febvre, Jean Hasbroucq, Pierre Doyau, Louis Be- viere, Anthoine Crespel, Abraham du Bois, Hugue Frere, Isaac Du Bois, and Simon le Febvre, their heirs and others," men whose names live in the

annals of their adopted country. On this patent nine families immediately settled, and laid, in the faith which they professed, the foundations of New Paltz.

Midway between the Haverstraw and New Paltz settlements, Patrick MacGregorie, his brother-in-law, David Toshuck, who subscribed his name " Laird of Minivard," and twenty-five others, principally Scotch Presbyterians, entered upon lands at the mouth of the Waoraneck. It was their original intention to settle in New Jersey, but they were persuaded by Governor Dongan to take up lands in New York. Obtaining a license for that purpose, MacGregorie, acting as their representative, purchased for his people a traet of four thousand aeres, embracing lands on both sides of " Murderer's Creek," "and so settled themselves, their families and sundry of their servants, on the land so purchased, and were not only the first Chris- tians that settled and improved thereon, but also peaceably and quietly possessed and enjoyed them- selves during the term of their natural lives." On what is now known as Plum Point, but which was then called, from its aboriginal owner, Couwanham's Hill, MacGregorie reared his cabin; in the same vicinity were the cabins of his associates, while on the south side of the creek the " Laird of Minivard" and his servant, Daniel Maskrig, established a trading- post. Within the bounds of the present county of Orange this was the first European settlement, as Haverstraw -

was the first in the original county.

Unfortunately, MacGregorie did not perfect his title by patent. Trusting to Governor Dongan to proteet his interests, he entered the service of the State, while Dongan obtained by purchase on his own account (Oet. 25, 1684), from "Mangenaett, Tsema, Keghgekapowell, alias Joghem, three Indians, native proprietors and principal owners, with the consent of Pemeranaghin, chief sachem of Esopus Indians," a tract described as extending from "the Paltz along Hudson's River to the land belonging to the Indians at the Murderer's Kill, thence westward to the foot of the high hills called Pitkiskaker and Aiaskawasting, thence southwesterly all along the said hills and the river called Peakadasank to a water- pond lying upon said hills called Meretange, compre- bending all those lands, meadows, and woods called Nescotank, Chawangon, Memorasink, Kakoghgetaw- narnuch, and Ghittatawagh." The consideration was the sum of ninety pounds and eleven shillings, in the following goods : "10 fathoms blue duffels, 10 fathoms of red duffels, 200 fathoms white wampum, 10 fathoms stroud water (red eloth), 10 fathoms blue cloth, 10 blankets, 10 guns, 10 kettles, 10 duffel coats, 10 draw- ing-knives, 10 shirts, 10 tobacco-boxes, 10 children's · duffel coats, 10 children's shirts, 10 pair of hose, 50 Ibs. powder, 50 bars lead, 10 pair shoes, 10 cutlasses, 10 hatchets, 10 hoes, 10 scissors, 10 tobacco tongues, 100 flints, 2 rolls of tobacco, 20 gals. rum, 2 vats strong beer, and 1 barrel cider."

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History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 2

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