History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 34

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 34

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From Hayden's "Washington and his Masonic Compeers" we take the following :

" Many Military Lodges existed in the army at this period, Imt the records of most of them are lost. So well established had these camp lodges become, and so beneficial to the brethren, that, in providing the necessary conveniences for the troops in their quarters on the Hudson at this time, an assembly-room or hall was built, one of the purposes of which was to serve as a lodge-room for Military Lodges. It was a rude wooden structure, forming an oblong square, forty or sixty feet, was one story in height, and had but a single door. Its windows wore sonare, unglazed openings, elevated so high as to prevent the prying gaze of the cowans. Its timbers were hewed, squared, and numbered for their places, and when the bilding was finished it was joyonsty dedicated. . . . American Union Lodge met in this room on the 24th of June, 1782, preparatory to celebrating the festival of St. John the Baptist, and pro- ceeded from thence to West Point, where they were joined by Washing- ton Lodge, when a procession was formed at the house of Gen. l'atte. son, its first Master, and both lodges proceeded from thence to the ' Colon-

nade,' where a dinner was provided and an oration delivered by Col. John Brooks, Master of Washington Lodge, and afterwards Governor of Massachusetts. American Union Lodge then returned to their room and closed in good time."#

The present Grand Lodge dates from Sept. 19, 1783. It was some years before its authority was fully es- tablished. Some of the old provincial lodges re- tained their charters, and, in addition to this, the military lodges had organized (1781) a Grand Lodge of their own. About five years after the regular Grand Lodge was organized (June 4, 1788), a lodge was warranted by it at Newburgh, under the title and number of Steuben Lodge, No. 18, and other lodges in the county soon followed. From records in the Grand Lodge and from newspaper files and other sources the following list has been compiled, which may or may not embrace all the lodges organized in the county prior to 1826 :

Steuben Lodge, No. 18 .- Warrant granted June +, 1788; constituted at Newburgh, Sept. 27, 1788. Its charter was applied for by F. A. Morris and nine others. Its first officers were Ebenezer Foote, W. M. ; Francis Anderson Morris, S. W .; Peter Nestell, J. W. Charles Clinton and Derick Amerman were its first adjoining members. Ebenezer Foote, Levi Dodge, and Charles Clinton were P. M.'s in 1797. The lodge was in quite a flourishing condition for a few years, but after 1792 it seldom held a meeting. The last mention made of it in the minutes of the Grand Lodge is 1800, but it seems to have had a nominal existence in 1806, as it is referred to in the petition for Hiram Lodge, in which it is said that the lodge bad not had a meeting in the past five years. Its charter and minute-book are now in the archives of the Grand Lodge. Gen. Baron Steuben was an hon- orary member.

St. John's Lodge, No. 21 .- Constituted at Warwick, March 26, 1790. The following were its officers (date not given ) : John Smith, W. M .; Wm. Holly, S. W .; Abm. Dolsen, J. W .; E. DuBois, See. ; Abm. Gte- nung, Treas.

Orange Lodge, No. 45 .- Warranted April 12, 1796, with the consent of St. John's Lodge, No. 21. Con- stituted at Goshen by John Smith, P. M. of St. John's, and Eben. Foote, P. M. of Steuben. Win. Thompson, W. M .; Seth Marvin, S. W .; Anthony Dobbin, J. W.

Montgomery Lodge, No. 71 .- This lodge was con- stituted at Montgomery, June 6, 1798, by G. M. De Witt Clinton, assisted by P. M.'s Levi Dodge and. Chas. Clinton, of Steuben Lodge. John Smith, W. M .; Jas. Fitzgerald, S. W .; Ebenezer Howe, J. W. Warrant surrendered prior to June, 1818.

St. James' Lodge, No. 65 .- Constituted at Middle- town, Jan. 6, 1798. Warrant surrendered prior to June, 1818.

* The building referred to was long known as "The Temple." It was situated on the camping-ground in New Windsor, and is more particu- larly referred to in the history of that town.

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Olive Branch Lodge, No. 102 .- Constituted at Min- isink, June 9, 1808 .*

Iliram Lodge, No. 131 .- Constituted at Newburgh, Feb. 19, 1806. Jonathan Fisk, W. M .; Chas. Baker, S. W .; John R. Drake, J. W .; P. McKenna, Sec. This lodge was the successor of Steuben Lodge, No. 18. Its history was specially marked by its participa- tion in the reception of Lafayette at Newburgh, in 1824. Its charter was surrendered Dec. 10, 1834. Revived in 1842 as No, 92. Peter F. Ilunn, W. M. ; Minard Harris, S. W .; James Belknap, J. W. ; D. W. Gridley, Sec. Charter surrendered in 1845.

Mount Moriah Lodge, No. 189 .- Chartered at Wall- kill, Dec. 6, 1809. Asked remission of dnes to Grand Lodge in consideration of having built a commodious lodge-room. Petition refused, Dec. 2, 1812.

Lawrence Lodge, No. 230 .- Chartered at Ward's Bridge, Montgomery, May 16, 1814. Officers installed by W. M. J. B. Reynolds, of Iliram Lodge, of New- burglı.

Washington Lodge, No. 220 .- Blooming-Grove, June 10, 1813. Officers installed by W. M. J. B. Reynolds, of Hiram Lodge.

Corner-Stone Lodge, No. 231 .- Chartered at Mon- roe, May 26, 1814.

Jerusalem Temple Lodge, No. 247 .- Charter granted Sept. 9, 1815. Constituted at Cornwall, October 5th, by James B. Reynolds, W. M. of Hiram Lodge, at the house of Ebenezer Crissey. Warrant officers: Wyatt Carr, W. M. ; Abraham Mead, S. W .; Sonth- erland Moore, J. W. December 23d the following officers were chosen : Wyatt Carr, W. M .; Abraham Mead, S. W .; Southerland Moore, J. W .; Nathaniel Clark, Treas. ; Samuel H. Purdy, Sec. ; William Wil- liams, S. D .; Stephen Coleman, J. D .; Obadiah Smith, Jr., Sr. M. C. ; Isaac B. Titus, Jr. M. C .; Lewis Patterson and John Arnokl, Stewards; and Hugh Gregg, Tyler. William A. Clark succeeded Wyatt Carr in 1820. Mr. Clark was followed by Jonathan Morrill. In 1824, Oliver Farrington was elected Master, and held that position until April 22, 1826, at which time the record stops, Mr. Beach's "Corn- wall," from which the record of this lodge is taken, adds : " In the summer of 1826 the communications ceased, and the lodge became dormant for a period of forty-five years, until revived in the winter of 1871 by a few old Masons, who obtained permission to meet under its old name and number. July 27, 1872, the old lodge was revived with a new number ( No. 721), ; and constituted with its original paraphernalia."t

Hoffman Lodge, No. 300 .- Constituted at Wallkill, Dec. 3, 1818. Its name was taken from Martin Hoff- man, D. G. M., who, in consideration thereof, pre- sented to it a Bible in 1818. This Bible is now in nse in Hoffman Lodge, No. 412, of Middletown. The first officers of the lodge were John Kirby, W. M .; Stacey Beakes, S. W .; Isaac Otis, J. W. ; Isaac Mills, Treas .; George Hill, Sec .; Chas. Anderson, Tyler. The lodge closed its existence in 1832.

In addition to the foregoing, the following charters were granted :

Orange Mark Lodge, No. 51, Goshen .- Warrant is- sued, Feb. 8, 1809, to William Elliott, William A. Thompson, and Edward Ely.

Orange Chapter, No. 33, Minisink .- Warrant issned, Feb. 6, 1812, to Uriah Hulse, James D. Wadsworth, and Malcomb Campbell.

Hiram Mark Lodge, No. 70, Newburgh .- Warrant issued, Feb. 3, 1812, to Sylvanus Jessup, James Wil- liams, and George Gordon. Warrant was forfeited Feb. 8, 1816, on account of non-payment of dues to the Grand Chapter.

Jerusalem Temple Chapter, No. 52, Newburgh .- Warrant issued, Feb. 6, 1817, to James B. Reynolds, William Ross, and William P. Lot. Warrant for- feited, Feb. 10, 1821, for non-payment of dues to Grand Chapter.#

The old Masonic lodges shared the fate of their associates in other parts of the State under the Anti- Masonic movements, which had their origin in the alleged abdnetion and murder of William Morgan, at Batavia, on the night of Sept. 11, 1826. Morgan, it will be remembered, was about to publish a book dis- closing the then obligations and ceremonies of the first degrees of the order. To prevent this, it was charged, a conspiracy was formed which resulted in his murder. Efforts were made to detect the guilty parties, but without success, and in the end the entire fraternity was charged with guilty participation in the offense, although the Masons always denied that Morgan had been murdered, or that the body which was identified as his was so in fact, but simply used as " a good-enough Morgan until after the election." An excited and prejudiced Anti-Masonic feeling sprang up, which not only carried the order down, but effected changes which have had more or less of political influence from that time to the present,-the Anti-Masons and the National Republicans, or an- cient Federalists, falling into alliance under Adams in 1828, and Clay and Wirt in 1832, against Jackson and the Democratic party, with whom the Masons found refuge against a perseention as bitter and heated as that which the Tammany Society had hurled against the Society of the Cincinnati and the Fed- eralists. What the latter would have become under its hereditary features had it obtained the control of

* There is a discrepancy in dates between the record entry in the Grand Lodge minntes and the dates given in an official list of lodges prepared in 1818, in the case of this and several other warrants. The date in the latter is here given, although known (from other sources) to be inaccurate. The petition for Olive Branch Lodge was made Dec. 7, 1803, and the record shows that it paid dnes to the Grand Lodge from Dec. 27th of that year.

f When the lodge suspended, the paraphernalia were taken in charge by Mr. John H. Lane, and on his death, in 1863, they were preserved by Mr. Dyer Brewster. They are now seen in the lodge-room, and excite the wonder of visiting brethren .- Beach's Cornicall.

# Information by Charles Il. Halstead, of Hudson River Lodge, New- burgh, to whom the writer is also indebted for many facts concerning the early lodges.

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the government, or what Masonry would have become had it escaped the chastening which it received, is not a question to be raised now that both have been essentially modified; suffice it that Masonry, under changes in its obligations and ceremonies, has re- gained its original standing, although it is still re- garded with a traditional suspicion by many.

Odd-Fellowship dates its existence in this country from Washington Lodge, No. 1, which was instituted at Baltimore, Md., April 26, 1819, under a charter obtained in England. A lodge had existed in New York prior to that time, but it had been disbanded. The Anti-Masonic excitement was a material aid to the introduction and permanent organization of the order, supplying, as it did, the loss which the Masons had sustained in the disbandment of their lodges, although it shared to some extent in the general dis- trust of secret societies. Its spread in New York was quite rapid until it was disrupted, in 1850, on the question of "new" and "old" constitution, and two State grand lodges were formed. Some years were spent in demoralization, but from this it has now fully recovered. Prior to this disruption the following lodges were organized in Orange County, viz. :

Highland Lodge, No. 65, at Newburgh, 1842.

Orange County Lodge, No. 74, at Newburgh, 1842. Middletown Lodge, No. 112, at Middletown, 1844. Chester Lodge, No. 138, at Chester.

Wawayanda Lodge, No. 157, at Goshen.

Freeman's Lodge, No. 170, at Montgomery.

Beacon Hill Lodge, No. 203, at Canterbury.

Hudson River Lodge, No. 281, at Newburgh, 1847. Myrtle Degree Lodge, No. 20, at Newburgh, 1845. Mount Carmel Encampment, No. 21, at Newburgh, 1845.

Mount Hermon Encampment, No. 34, at Goshen.

Kossuth Lodge, No. 129, at Newburgh, 1850, and Gray Court Lodge, at Chester, were organized after the disruption as "new" constitution lodges. With the exception of Highland, No. 65, all the Newburgh lodges perished. Middletown, No. 112, and Free- man's Lodge, No. 170, of Montgomery, also escaped the general wreck. Since the reorganization fifteen lodges have been established, including Highland, Middletown, Freeman's, and three Rebecca Degree Lodges.

CHAPTER XI.

BENCH AND BAR OF ORANGE COUNTY.

THE bench and bar of the county have, from the earliest period in its judicial history, been composed of men of the highest professional rank in the eras in which they lived, and of whom many have their names written indelibly upon the annals of the politi- cal and general history of the province and of the State. In preparing an abridged review the mere

mention of names and dates is the only tribute which we can pay to the memory of many eminent in the profession in times past, while of others even our most complete sketches do not adequately convey an ample knowledge of their worthiness. Although a Court of Common Pleas and a Supreme Court were established in the original county in 1691, there is no record of proceedings until 1703, and it was some years later that the county had resident members of the legal profession. Indeed, there is an entire blank in existing records from 1703 to 1727, during which time litigation was apparently confined to the juris- diction of justices of the peace or to courts held else- where. It is with this latter year, therefore, that we commence our review .*

1727 .- HENRY WILEMAN. He was formerly a resident of New York, where he was a coroner, and in 1701 a register in chancery. In 1712, in company with one Henry Van Bael, he received a patent for a tract of land in what is now the town of Montgomery, on which he founded the township plot of Wileman- town, in which he lived and died. Ile was the first resident attorney of whom we find any record.

1729 .- PHINEAS MCINTOSH. He was the holder of patented lands in the old precinct of the High- lands, his tract being in the original town of New Windsor. He was one of the partners in the town- ship of Newburgh plot in 1731, and erected his resi- dence there, which was known for many years as the " McIntosh house."

1734 .- JOHN ALSOP. He located in New Windsor about 1724, and removed from the county about 1744. HIis son, John Alsop, Jr., was a member of the Con- tinental Congress of 1776, but resigned on the adop- tion of the Declaration of Independence. His daugh- ter was the mother of Governor John A. King.

1735 .- JOHN CHAMBERS. He was the son of Wil- liam Chambers, one of the resident holders of the Chambers and Southerland Patent in New Windsor in 1712. He removed to New York in 1730, where he was appointed member of the Governor's Council (1752-63) and associate judge of the Supreme Court (1751-66). His contemporary, Judge Jones, says of him, in his " ITistory of New York," "Mr. Chambers had been regularly bred to the law in the province, in all the courts of which he had practiced for a long course of years, with universal applause and the fairest reputation as an honest, upright man. He was at this time (1760) one of His Majesty's Council. His reli- gion was that of the Church of England, of which he was not only a zealous professor, but an ornament and an honor to the religion he professed."

1741 .- VINCENT MATTHEWS. He was the son of Peter Matthews. IJe located in the present town of Cornwall in 1721, having purchased the Van Dam

* The year prefixed is that of admission to the bar of the county, as shown by the court records. In all cases the names of known non- residents of the county have been rejected.

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Patent, to which he gave the name of Matthewsfield. He was clerk of the county from 1726 to 1733, and a judge of Common Pleas in 1733. He was also colonel of Orange County militia 1738-58.

1753 .- FLETCHER MATTHEWS. He was a son of Vincent Matthews. Cadwallader Colden, Jr., of Col- denham, son of Governor Colden, was admitted the same year.

1759 .- WILLIAM WICKHAM, Goshen.

1760 .- DAVID MATTHEWS. He was also a son of Vincent Matthews. He removed to New York, where he was appointed mayor by Governor Tryon in 1776. He was the father of Vineent Matthews (2), who was admitted in 1790 and removed to Rochester, where he was regarded as the " father of the bar of Western New York."

1767 .- GEORGE CLINTON. He was the son of Charles Clinton, who located in New Windsor in 1731. He studied with Judge William Smith; was appointed clerk of Ulster County; was the first Gov- ernor of the State under the constitution of 1777, and died while Vice-President of the United States. It may with truth be said of George Clinton that he was to the State of New York what Washington was to the nation. In early lite he gave promise of great

GEORGE CLINTON.

activity and courage; he left his father's house and sailed in a privateer in the French war, and on his return demanded and received a place in the expedi- tion under his father and his brother against Fort Frontenac. At the close of the war he settled down to study under Judge Smith. In 1759 he was ap- pointed clerk of Ulster County, but held that position for only about one year. He took an active part in colonial polities, and was elected to a seat in the

Assembly in 1760, serving until the close of that body under the English government. In the diseus- sions of that period no voice raised in the province was more consistent and firm in resisting the demands of the crown, nor was there of his contemporaries one whose energy and zeal was more devoted. In 1775 he was elected to the Continental Congress, and served in that body until after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, that instrument, however, failing to receive, under instructions, from the Provincial Con- vention of New York, either his vote or his signature. He was appointed a brigadier-general in the army of the United States in 1776, and during the earlier years of the war was active in military affairs in New York, where he held, by virtue of appointment, com- mission as brigadier-general of militia ; subsequently, by virtue of his office as Governor, he was com- mander-in-chief of the army and navy of the State. In the former capacity he was in the field with his brigade for the defense of New York City in 1776; and in the latter, held command of the forts in the Highlands at the time of their reduction by Sir Henry Clinton, Oct. 7, 1777, and marched to the defense of the Mohawk Valley in 1779. In April, 1777, he was elected Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, under the first constitution of the State, and was continued in the former office eighteen years. His duties were especially trying. The State was the battle-ground of the nation almost during the entire war of the Revolution ; invasions of the enemy swept in on the north and on the south, while the western frontiers were ravaged by savages and Tories; yet during the darkest hours of the heroie struggle he held the helm with a firm hand and an inspiring courage. His duties after peace was established were not less trying, though of a different type ; poverty and distress were in his borders, and crude laws required shaping to the changed political relations of the people. That his administration was wise no one will question. He was president of the convention assembled at Pough- keepsie to consider the Federal Constitution in 1788; was again chosen Governor in 1801, and in 1804 was elected Viee-President of the United States, which position he held, by re-election in 1808, at the time of his death. In a sketch of this eharacter nothing like justice to his public services can be rendered. He married Cornelia Tappen, only daughter of Petrus V and Tyante Tappen, of Kingston, Feb. 7, 1770, and immediately thereafter took up his residenee in New Windsor, where he remained until October, 1777, when, on the fall of the Highland forts, he hastily removed to Little Britain, and from the latter place to Poughkeepsie in December. His children were Catha- rine, born in New Windsor, Nov. 5, 1770; Cornelia T., born in New Windsor, June 29, 1774; George W., born in Poughkeepsie, Oct. 18, 1778; Elizabeth, born in Poughkeepsie, July 16, 1780; Martha W., born in Poughkeepsie, Oet. 12, 1783; Maria, born in New York, Oct. 6, 1785.

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1770 .- James Sayre, residence not known ; Thomas Smith, residence not known.

1773 .- William Thompson, Goshen.

WILLIAM THOMPSON was the son of William Thompson, who settled in the present town of Goshen at an early period. He was one of the representatives of the county in 1788, and was a State senator from 1797 to 1800. In 1788 he was appointed first judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the county, and held the office one term. Of his descendants we have no other information than that a daughter married Dr. Nathaniel Elmer, of Warwick, and had Dr. William Elmer, of Goshen ; Dr. Nathaniel Elmer, of Denton ; Jesse Elmer, of Bellvale, and a daughter who married Robert Armstrong.

John W. Smith, residence not known ; Balthazar DeHart, Goshen. He was an active man in the early part of the Revolution.

1788 .- James W. Wilkin, Goshen.

1790 .- James Everett, Goshen ; Phineas Bowman, Newburgh ; Reuben Hopkins, Goshen ; Samuel Boyd, New Windsor; Vincent Matthews (2), Cornwall ; Thomas Cooper, Oliver L. Kerr.

PHINEAS BOWMAN served in the war of the Revo- lution as captain in a Massachusetts regiment, but i was usually addressed by the title of colonel. He ! came to Newburgh with the army, and either remained here after its disbandment, as was the case with sev- eral of his contemporaries in the service, or returned here not long subsequent to that event. He was a man of high legal attainments ; was admitted to prac- tice in the courts of Ulster County in 1790; rose rap- idly in his profession, and rendered his constituents valuable service, as a member of the Legislature of 1798, by securing the passage of the law erecting the present county of Orange. During the last few years of his life, however, he lost character and fortune by habits of intemperance ; and his memory is now pre- served only through the medium of anecdotes arising from occurrences in which he was a principal partici- pant. The date of his death is not known. He left one daughter, Mary, who married Benjamin Ander- son. His wife, Mary, died March 22, 1813, in her fifty-eighth year, universally esteemed by all who en- joyed her acquaintance.

SAMUEL BOYD was the son of Robert Boyd, the Revolutionary gun-maker of New Windsor. We be- lieve he removed to New York.

1791 .- Nicholas Evertson.

1792 .- Solomon Sleight, Newburgh ; John Wick- ham, Goshen.

1793 .- George Clinton, Jr., son of Gen. James Clinton, of New Windsor; Benjamin Smith, Jr., Newburgh.

1794 .- Abraham L. Smith.

1800 .- Jonathan Fisk, Newburgh ; Stephen Jack- son, Newburgh ; C. F. Smith, James F. Smith.

JONATHAN FISK, perhaps the most distinguished of the early lawyers of Newburgh, was born at Am-

herst, N. H., Sept. 26, 1773. He was the son of Jona- than Fisk, who subsequently resided at Williamstown, Vt., and became a member of the Legislature of that State, and judge of probate, as well as the founder of that branch of the family of which the late James Fisk, of Erie Railroad fame, was a member. He left the home of his father at the age of nineteen years, and commenced the occupation of school-teacher, qualified, according to a letter of recommendation signed by Moses Bradford, Dec. 12, 1792, to teach "writing. English grammar, and arithmetic." We next find him at Ware, N. H., in 1795, with a certifi- cate stating that he had lived for several months in the family of Amos Wood, of that place, where he had "read Greek and Latin, and attended to other branches of study, by which he appeared well qualified to teach a school," and that he "maintained a good moral character." In 1796 or '97 he entered the office of Peter Hawes, in New York, and commenced the study of law. He was without other means of sup- port than such as his own industry conld furnish, but he was enabled to complete his studies by occasional remuneration for services as an amanuensis, and by giving instruction to a class of young men in the evening. In 1799 he was admitted to practice in the Court of Common Pleas of Westchester County ; in 1800, in the Supreme Court of the State, and during the same year, in the Courts of Common Pleas of the counties of Orange and Ulster. In 1802 he was ex- amined by Chief Justice Morgan Lewis, and "regu- larly admitted as a Counsellor of Law in all the courts of the State of New York." Mr. Fisk removed to Newburgh, Feb. 4, 1800. In 1809 he was elected rep- resentative in Congress from the Sixth District, which was composed of the counties of Orange and West- chester, and again in 1814. Parties were then known by the titles of Democrats and Federalists. Mr. Fisk was a Democrat, and an ardent supporter of the ad- ministrations of Jefferson and of Madison. While in Congress he sustained the war of 1812, opposed the recharter of the Bank of the United States, proposed a plan for a national printing-office, and during his whole career he commanded the confidence of his friends and the respect of his opponents.

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History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 34

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