History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 6

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 6

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That the system was corrupt, especially in the earlier years of its administration, is a fact revealed on every page of the history of that period. Frauds upon the revenue pervaded all departments of the public service ; piratical expeditions, including that of the notorious Capt. Kidd, were fitted out by men high in public affairs ; land-grants were obtained for considerations paid to the Governor ; there was noth- ing, apparently, that had money in it that was not prospered by official connivance. In one instance only is it written that the Governor's Council "was ashamed to consent" to one of his grants, and that not because of its magnitude, but that it proposed to give his footmian a lease for " a little island called Nutten Island," which had hitherto been " convenient for grazing a few coach-horses and cows for the Gov- ernor's family."t Sectarianism was the cloak for all kinds of peculation ; to write against another at one time that he was a Protestant, or at another that lie was "a Popish tailor," or similar epithet, was the stepping-stone to official promotion. Indeed, it would seem that more modern political partisans have not learned much that is new, or that many who have since held official station have special claim to origi- nality in methods of abusing public trusts.

It was when this era of corruption was at its height ' representation in Assembly.

that the people of Orange County appear distinctly in the politics of the province. Governor Bellomont, who succeeded Governor Fletcher in 1698, was clothed with power to correct the abuses which had grown up, for which purpose he was given " a negative voice in the making and passing of all laws, statutes, and ordi- nances, and could " adjourn, prorogue, and dissolve the Assembly" whenever he deemed it necessary .; Issuing a warrant for the election of a new Assembly, he cautioned the sheriff's, by whom it was to be held,

against " undue elections and returns ;" but the latter were themselves ereatures of the corrupt combination which had been formed, or, as the record states, "were for the most part men of mean rank," who "had been continued in their places from year to year by Gov- ernor Fletcher," and who, "instead of complying" with their instructions, "carried themselves most unfairly, in so much that one of them made return for a county (viz., Orange County), in which he suf- fered not any one frecholder to vote."? Other dis- tricts shared in the " corruption of the franchise" to such an extent that when the Assembly convened, eleven of the nineteen members of which it was com- posed, it is said, " sat by controverted elections," and, having the majority, "established themselves and brought all things into the greatest confusion."

Finding that nothing could be done with such a body of men, Bellomont dissolved the Assembly and ordered a new election, taking care that Governor Fletcher's sheriff's were retired from the management. The result was satisfactory to him, but not to those who were defeated, who complained to the king that " the election was appointed to be upon the same day in all places except the two most remote counties, whereby the best freeholders, who had estates in sev- eral counties, were deprived of giving their votes at several elections ; that "the sheriff's performed the business they were appointed for by admitting some for freeholders who were not so, and rejecting others who were really so, as they voted for or against their party, and by nominating and appointing inspectors of the poll who, upon any complaint of unfair deal- ing, gave this general auswer : 'If you are aggrieved complain to my lord Bellomont, and the same prac- tice in all places gives just reason to believe the orders for it came from his excellency."

"To secure a majority of such men as he desired," continues this remonstrance, "his lordship, without any instruction from England, added two to the former number, viz. : one more to be chosen for the city and county of Albany, and one for the county of Orange, which last is by act of Assembly made a part of the county of New York, and has not twenty inhabitants freeholders in it, and never before had a distinct By this means one Abraham Gouverneur, a Dutchman,-so indigent as never to be assessed in the public taxes, and who, as is reasonably to be supposed, had a deed of some land made to him of purpose to qualify him for it, because he never had any land before,-was chosen an Assem- blyman, and is since made Speaker of the House of Representatives. This fellow was formerly convicted of murther and pardoned, | and soon after the Revo-

¿ Stanley Handcock appears as sheriff of Orange County at this time. Ile was also sheriff of New York.

[ Gouverneur was attached to the administration of Governor Leisler, and was tried and condemned, with others, for his participation in the resistance to Governor Sloughter, during which several of the king's troops were killed, including Capt. MacGregorie.' Ile was subsequently pardoned by the king. It is to these facts the text refers.

* The old story of carrying the ballot-box around the country origi- nated in this. Unfortunately for the story, there was no ballot-box, the vuto of the freeholders being simply registered.

+ Col. Ilist., iv. 384, 393.

* Ibil., i. 206.

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

lution publicly declared that Jacob Leisler had carried the government of New York by the sword, and had the same right to it as King William had to the crown, having conquered the kingdom of Eng- Jand. At the meeting of the Assembly it appeared of the twenty-one representatives there were but seven Englishmen, the remainder being all Dutch and of the meanest sort, half of whom do not under- stand English, which can conduce little to the honor of the English interest there."*

Notwithstanding this bitter complaint, the Assem- bly instituted some important reforms. Grants of large tracts of lands were set aside, the elections for representatives were regulated, and provision made for the severe punishment of frauds upon the revenue. Had Bellomont lived, perhaps more general reforms would have been secured ; but his death, in 1701, was followed, after a short administration under the Coun- cil, by the appointment of Lord Cornbury, who not only restored the unscrupulous officials that had been removed by Bellomont, but earned for himself the " unenviable distinction of being the worst of all the Governors under the English crown." "Rapacious without a parallel, he hesitated not," says one of his biographers, "to apply the public money to his own private purposes ; and though notoriously vicious, yet he was so intolerant that he sought to establish the Episcopacy at all hazards, imprisoning and prohibit- ing ministers of other denominations from exercising their functions without his special license. He was, moreover, as destitute of gratitude as of courtesy, in- juring those most from whom he had received the greatest benefits. His manners were as ignoble and undignified as his condnet was base, and when this hopeful scion of royalty wandered about the streets clothed as a woman (which was a common practice with him), the people felt that he had taken Caligula for a model."

But a better state of affairs was born of the excesses which Cornbury committed. While at Chear Hall, his country-seat in Haverstraw, he surrounded him- self with such men as Daniel Honan, the freeholders looked upon his extravagance with alarm, and, through the Assembly, refused the grants of money which he asked. The rights of the people with regard to taxa- tion, to courts of law, to officers of the crown, were speedily asserted and increased in strength with the political education of the people. When Cornbury was succeeded by Lovelace (1709), the Assembly began the contest that was never to cease but with in- dependence. The crown demanded a permanent rev- enue, without appropriation; the Assembly would only grant an annual revenue and appropriate it spe- cifically. The power lodged in the Governor to dis- solve the Assembly was invoked in vain; the people were mainly of one mind that they bad an "inherent right" to legislation, springing "not from any com-

mission or grant from the crown, but from the free choice and election of the people, who ought not, nor justly can, be divested of their property without their consent." In all the long struggle which followed and which culminated in the war for independence, the representatives of original Orange were found in the interest of freedom, and gave to the final issue its most consistent advocates, its most devoted adher- ents.

Practically, the organization of the county began in 1703, when the first session of the court and the first mceting of justices acting as a board of supervisors was held .; Such local administration as it had, aside from the officers of its precincts, may be briefly stated. Minnie Johannes was its first sheriff, 1685; Floris Willemse Crom in 1690, Stanley Handcock in 1694, John Patersen in 1699, and Theunis Toleman in 1701. The latter was not held in very high esteem by Gov- ernor Cornbury, who apparently regarded the ability of a man to write his own name as a qualification. Direk Storm was the county clerk, or clerk of the court, in 1691, and William Huddleston in 1703. Judges of the Common Pleas came in in 1701, Wil- liam Merritt being the first judge. The first session of the court was held at Orangetown, April 28, 1703; present, William Merritt and John Merritt, judges. The first recorded sessions of justices of the peace, acting as a board of supervisors, was held April 27, 1703; present, William Merritt, Jolın Merritt, Corne- lius Cuyper, Tunis Van Houton, Thomas Burroughs, Michael Hawdon, justices; John Perry, sheriff; Wil- liam Huddleston, clerk; and Conradt Hauson, con- stable. From this time the record is continuous.

Many franchises were dependent upon population. Of this character were surrogate's courts. The first law of the province relating to estates gave to courts of Common Pleas power to take proof of wills and grant letters of administration in remote counties. Other connties, including Orange and Ulster, were required to transact such business in New York. This was changed by act of Nov. 24, 1750, which re- lates that whereas, at the time of the enactment of the law providing that in remote counties courts of Com- mon Pleas should be authorized to take the examina- tion of witnesses to any will, on oath, and to grant letters of administration, the " county of Orange was not considered and esteemed one of the remote coun- ties," but that since the passage of the said act "the northwest parts of the said connty, being nearly one hundred miles distance from the city of New York," had "increased greatly in number of inhabitants, as well by families removed to those parts as otherwise," who were laboring under " the likeinconveniences as those of said remote counties;" that therefore the judges and justices of the said Court of Common

The record book contains this entry: "Register kept for Orange County, begun ye 5th day of April, Anno Domini 1703." The earlier records were probably kept in New York, to which the county was attached.

* Col. Hist., iv. 621.

COURTS, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, ETC.

Pleas, and the clerk of the said county, be vested with authority to take such examinations and issue such letters of administration. This arrangement was con- tinued until 1754, when William Finn was appointed surrogate and a Surrogate's Court established.

The judicial history of the county properly begins with the Court of Common Pleas (1691), the first session of which was held at Orangetown, April 28, - 1703. Prior to that time, and for several years subse- quent, in some cases, as has been already stated, its primary settlements were attached to New York or were included in the county of Ulster. The Court of Common Pleas was continued until 1847, when it gave place to the present County Court. The Supreme | Court (also established in 1691) held circuits in the county after 1703. Its bench was composed of the best legal talent of the province and of the State. Its circuits were succeeded by the Circuit Courts, established by the constitution of 1821, and the latter by the judicial system of 1846, when a new Supreme Court was organized having general jurisdiction of law and equity, and holding at least two terms annu- ally of the Circuit Court and Court of Over and Ter- miner in each county. Surrogate's Courts have been held in the county since 1754. The original county was divided into two court districts in 1727, when courts were held at Orangetown and at Goshen alter- nately, the former being the shire-town. A similar division was made in the present county in 1798, when Goshen was established as the shire-town, and court terms alternated with Newburgh. This division is still preserved, and is the only practical surviving link between the past and the present, but without other use than to serve as a reminder of the wilder- ness era, with its log court-houses, dreary forest roads, pioneer jurors and pioneer justice, and of the changes in the modes of transit, which now render what is vulgarly called "half-shire towns" unnecessary.

The changes which had been made from time to time in the precinct organizations of the district, which have been already stated, were the outgrowth of increasing population and the necessary conve- nience of local administration. But their subdivision, especially after the war of the Revolution, did not entirely meet the emergencies which the rapid in- crease of population demanded. The people of New- burgh and the neighboring southern towns of Ulster County were required to transact their county busi- ness at Kingston, while those of Cornwall and the northeastern part of Orange were compelled to attend courts and enter their records at Orangetown. In either case the county-seat was thirty miles or more distant, and in precisely opposite directions, while. the facilities for communication, for a large portion of the time, were most exceptionable. The inhabitants of the western part of Orange were better accommo- dated, Goshen being made a half-shire district; still, their records were kept at Orangetown, and a consid- able portion of their court business was necessarily

transacted there. To inaugurate the correction of these inconveniences a convention of delegates from the several towns interested was held at Ward's Bridge* on the 6th of April, 1793, but without other result than the agitation of the question, and the half-expressed willingness of the delegates from Go- shen to a union of the northern towns of Orange and the southern towns of Ulster in a new county organi- zation, with courts alternately at Newburgh and Go- shen. A second convention was held at the house of John Decker, at Otterkill, in February, 1794, with no better result, the delegates from Newburgh being in- structed to decline " any union at all" unless it should be agreed that a court-house be erected and courts held at Newburgh and Goshen alternately,t a propo- sition which the Goshen delegates were not fully disposed to concede.

Here the matter rested until 1797, when a third convention assembled, similarly composed, at Kerr's hotel, in Little Britain. At this convention, Gen. Wilkin and Gen. Hopkins, from Orange, and Daniel Niven and Isaac Belknap, Sr., from Ulster, appointed a committee to report terms upon which a union should be formed, agreed to a stipulation that the courts should be held at Newburgh and Goshen alternately, and the convention ratified it. The sub- ject came before the Legislature in the winter of 1797 -98. Two bills were presented,-one entitled “ An Act for Dividing the County of Orange," the other, "An Act for Altering the Bounds of the Counties of Orange and Ulster." The first was passed on the 23d of February, and enacted "That all that tract of land in the county of Orange, lying northwest of a line beginning at the mouth of Poplopen's Kill, on Hudson's River, and running from thence to the southeastermost corner of the farm of Stephen Sloat, and then along the south bounds of his farm to the southwest corner thereof, and then on the same course to the bounds of the State of New Jersey,¿ shall be and hereby is erected into a separate county, and shall be called and known by the name of Orange ;" and "That all that part of the said county of Orange lying southward of the above described line shall be erected into a separate county, and shall be called and known by the name of Rockland." The act also made provision for holding courts, fixed the number of members of Assembly, etc. The second act was passed on the 5th of April following. It enacted "That the towns of New Windsor, Newburgh, Wallkill, Mont- gomery, and Deerpark, now in the county of Ulster, shall be and hereby are annexed to the county of Orange," and made provision for holding courts al-

* Now the village of Montgomery.

f Newburgh Town Records, Feb. I, 1794.

# Act of April 3, 1801, gives this line as from the middle of lludson's River " west to the mouth of Poplopen's Kill, and from thence on a di- rect course to the east end of the mill-dam now or late of Michael Wei- man across the Ramapough River, and from thence a direct course to the twenty-mile stone standing in the said division line between this State and the State of New Jersey."

IIISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

ternately at Newburgh and Goshen, the latter being the county-seat.

With these enactments the records of the original county were closed, and from the heart of the patents and precincts covering the district was erected the present county, bearing, under the title of Orange, the colonial and Revolutionary history of the territory which it embraced, the most populous* and fertile of the lands of the original district, and more than two- thirds of its wealth,-elements which gave to it imme- dliate prominence in State and national politics, and which, under subsequent and progressive development, have maintained its rank among the first counties of the State. The boundary lines of the new county were definitely fixed by the general law of April 3, 1801, entitled " An Act to divide this State into Counties," as follows: "The county of Orange to contain all that part of this State bounded east- erly by the middle of Hudson's River, southerly by the said county ot Rockland and the division line between this State and the State of New Jersey, westerly by the river Mongaapt and the division line between this State and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and northerly by a line drawn from a point in the middle of said Hudson's River oppo- site the northeast corner of a tract of land granted to Francis Harrison and Company, called the five- thousand-acre tract, to the said northeast corner, and running from thence westerly along the north bounds of the said tract and the north bounds of another tract granted to the said Francis Harrison to the tract of land commonly called Wallace's tract, then along the lines of the same northerly and westerly to the northeasterly bounds of a tract of land granted to Jacobus Kip, John Cruger, and others, commonly called Kip and Cruger's tract, then westerly along the northeasterly and northerly bonnds thereof, and then

* The population of the original county of Orange, and that part of Ulster included in the district, was (1790) as follows :

ORANGE COUNTY :

ULSTER COUNTY :

Cornwall

4,225

Mamakating 1,763

Goshen .

2,448

Montgomery 3,563

Haverstraw

4,826

Newburgh. 2,365

Minisink

2,215

New Windsor. 1,819

Orangetown

1,175

New Marlborough

2.241

Warwick

3,603

Shawangunk

2,128

Wallkill

2,571

Total.

18,492

Total 16,450

The following were the towns included in the new county, under the same census :

TOWNS FROM ORANGE :

TOWNS FROM ULSTER :

Cornwall

4,225

Montgomery 3,563

Goshen ..

2,448

Newburgh.

2,365

Minisink

2,215

New Windsor.

1,819

Warwick

3,603

Wallkill

2,57L

Total.

12,491

Total 10,318

The census of 1800, immediately following the erection of the new county, gave its population as 29,368, and that of the towns not included as 14,807,-showing the population of the district at that time to be 44,175.

+ Originally known as the Minigwing. Mongaap ie presumed to be Dutch. It is entered on Southier'e map, " Mangawping." While the old county line ran to the Delaware River, the new line stopped at the Mougaap ; it was also farther north than the old line.

westerly to the northeast corner of a traet of three thousand acres granted to Rip Van Dam and others, thence southerly along the same to the northeast corner of a tract of three thousand acres granted to Henry Wileman, and running thence along the north bounds thereof to the Paltz River, commonly called the Wallkill, then southerly up the said river to the southeast corner of a tract of four thousand acres of land granted to Gerardus Beekman and others, then westerly and northerly along the southerly and west- erly bounds thereof to the northeast corner thereof, and then northwesterly along the north bounds of the land granted to Jeremiah Schuyler and Company to the Shawangunk Kill, thence southerly along said kill to the north part of the farm now or late in the occupation of Joseph Wood, Jr., thence west to the river Mongaap. By act of the 7th of April of the same year definite 'boundary lines were given to the towns composing the newly-constructed county, namely : Blooming-Grove, Chesekook, Cornwall, Deerpark, Goshen, Minisink, Montgomery, New Windsor, Newburgh, Wallkill, and Warwick.}

The first buildings of the original county were erected at Orangetown some time about 1703. At the first court of sessions held by justices of the peace, April 5, 1703, an examination of the "common goal of the county" was ordered and directions given to complete the same. By act of the Assembly, Dec. 16, 1737, "the justices of the peace of that part of Orange County lying to the northward of the Highlands" were " authorized to build a court-house and goal for the said county at Goshen."? This building was completed under act of Nov. 3, 1740, by which one hundred pounds were authorized to be raised for the purpose on the portion of the county already named. It was a structure of wood and stone ; was repaired in 1754, and was torn down in 1775 or 1776, | a new stone court-house having been ereeted. The latter was on the site now occupied by the office of the county clerk in Goshen. Its erection was provided for under an act of the Assembly, March 12, 1773, by which one thousand pounds were raised for the purpose on the precincts of Goshen and Cornwall. Four hundred pounds additional were raised in 1774 to finish it, and prisoners were removed to it under act of April 1, 1775. Meanwhile the old court-house at Orange- town was replaced by a new structure in 1704, the

# From the territory embraced in the towns named the following ad- ditional towns were erected: Chester, 1845, from Goshen, Warwick, Blooming-Grove, and Monroe; Crawford, 1823, from Montgomery ; Greenville, 1853, from Minisink; Ilamptonburgh, 1830, from Goshen, Blooming-Grove, Montgomery, New Windsor, and Wallkill; Mouut Hope, 1833. from Wallkill, Minisink, and Deerpark ; Wawayanda, 1849, from Minisink ; Highlands, from Cornwall, 1872; the city of Newburgh, 1866, from Newburgh. The county now embraces eighteen towns, oue city, and six incorporated villages.

2 The courts in Newburgh were held in the academy building, the upper floor having been specially fitted np for the purpose.

| Part of the dungeon wall of this structure now forms the south end wall of the building known as the Orange Hotel at Goshen, and is the only portion that was not removed from its original foundation.

COURTS, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, ETC.

expense being borne by the "southern part of the county." It was subsequently destroyed by fire.

The court-house and jail erected at Goshen under the act of March 12, 1773, came into the present county on its reorganization under the act of 1795, and with its history, and that of other public buildings erected since that time, we are more immediately in- terested than in those of the original county. The court-house of 1773 stood on the site now occupied by the office of the county clerk, the well on the west side of the latter building having stood about ten feet from the rear of the centre of the court-house. There were two periods in its architecture. As orig- inally constructed it was two stories high ; its first floor contained a hall in the centre, with sheriff's office and dwelling-rooms on the west, a dungeon on the southeast, and a staircase on the northeast. The court-room was at the west end of the second floor, the judges' bench facing the entrance; on the south- cast were cells for minor offenders. The building was plain, and without belfry; its only ornamental fea- tures were two windows larger than the others and arched, one over the front door on the north side, its mate directly opposite on the south side, and the date " 1773" worked conspicuously in brick on the east wall in lieu of the British crown-stone which had been obtained for the place, but which Gabriel Wisner demolished with a hammer .* Here were confined during the Revolution political offenders or Tories, and prisoners of all grades; among others Joshua Hett Smith, who was arrested for complicity in the treason of Arnold, and who presents in his narrative an inside view of the prison at that time. He writes: " The jail was filled with those who professed to be the king's friends: Tories, and those who were pris- oners of war; felons, and characters of all colors and descriptions. I was challenged to know if I had any hand in the business of aiding the Tory prisoners to effect their escape from the dungeon. These were a number of persons who were taken in arms while going to join the king's troops in Canada ; they were residents of western settlements where, the country being thinly inhabited, they had no jails, or at least none that were large and strong enough to contain the number of persons who were captured, and who were therefore brought to this place for greater security. Among them were some of the most daring and hardy people, belonging to Col. Brant and Butler's corps of whites and Indians. Fifty of these were crowded in a small cell, which had a window grated with strong bars of iron, and a sentinel to watch it.+ Notwith- standing his vigilance, however, some implements were conveyed to the prisoners, who, in the night, by

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History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 6

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