History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 7

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 7

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gentle degrees, picked away the mortar from the heavy foundation walls, and in the course of one night made an aperture large enough to admit a man of almost any size to pass through, which they all did and effected their escape. Fortunately a few days after, several persons came to see me, as well on busi- ness as from friendship, and they having interest with the deputy sheriff, persuaded him to sutl'er me to come out of my place of confinement, and sit with them in the open court-room." As evening approached, he took occasion to ask to visit his room a moment; but in- stead of doing so, "when I came near the door of my prison, I suddenly turned, and from a wink of my servant went down a staircase that was at the side of it, and without delay made to the outer door of the jail, which not being bolted, I went out."

The building was changed by the addition of a third story, cupola and bell, about the commence- ment of the present century. On the new floor was a large or main jail-room at the southeast corner, and adjoining it on the northeast was a dungeon with one grated window so arranged that it could be completely darkened. Immediately west of these was a large hall separating the rooms on the east side from a jail- room on the west and three other rooms, one occupied by the county clerk and the surrogate, the others by a jailer, and used as occasion required for prisoners. The arrangement of the court-room was changed, the benchi being placed on the northerly side, with the prisoners' dock on the right, and seats for jurors on both left and right. The building had no basement. When prisoners died in it who were confined for debt, they were buried under the floor; or, if on the limits, in the prison-yard .; The death penalty was inflicted publicly, outside the court-house walls .? The building was without special architecture. Its length exceeded its depth; its walls were stone; its roof was hipped; its ceilings quite high for a struc- ture of that period. Its little bell now calls the fire- men of Goshen to their duties; the old stones in its walls are incorporated in the walls of the present jail ; its historical associations embrace all that is now regarded as barbarous in the old judicial system.

The court-houses now in use at Newburgh and Goshen were erected by the present county in 1842, and were the result of a compromise on the question of erecting a new county, which had been agitated at

* The tradition is that a controversy arose in regard to the place where the stone should be fixed. Wisner, who was a justice of the peace, asked that it be handed to him and he would place it where no one would ob- ject. Holling the stone in the wall, as if to adjust it, he suddenly struck it with a sledge and broke it in fragments. He was subsequently killed in the battle of Minisink.

+ The original dungeon of this building.

# Among those who were buried under the floor of the building was Major Antill, an Englishman of high social rank, who had been in- prisoned for debt. Under the law, the body was held until the debt was paid. In 1875 the remains of several persons who had been buried in the yard were exhumed, in digging a trench, and removed elsewhere, gaining their final release from the old " limits" through the mercy of a laborer's shovel. The remains were not identified.

¿ Claudius Smith was executed a few rods in the rear of the court- house, at about the point now formed by the southwest angle of the Presbyterian church grounds. Teed and Dunning were executed in a field just out of town, a mile or so south of the court-house, near what is known as Stewart's woods. Peter Crine was hanged in the court- room, and his execution was the first in Orange County under the statute decreeing that capital punishment should be more privately administered

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

different periods* by the people of Newburgh and the city of Newburgh, # is provided for by a county house and farm situated about four miles south of the vil- lage of Goshen, on the road leading to Florida. In the early years of the settlement of the county, this support devolved, under the law of 1701, upon the several towns and precincts. The relief provided was of two kinds : temporary or special assistance to the poor, and absolute support where the latter was neces- sary. In most cases those of the latter class were given out to board with the person who, at the annual town-meeting, should propose the lowest rate of com- pensation ; although in some cases tenements were rented 'for families. Newburgh and Monroe pur- cbased lands and erected town poor-houses, but they were the exception .¿ As population increased and the number of paupers became greater, the distinction between town and county poor was established,-the northeastern towns. Their erection was inaugurated in 1839 by an application to the Legislature, on the part of the board of supervisors, for authority to build a new court-house at Goshen. This proposition was opposed by Newburgh, and the passage of the act de- feated. In December following the supervisors at an extra session (December 7th ) adopted, by a vote of ten to four, a resolution to apply to the Legislature for power to levy a tax of thirty thousand dollars on the county for the building of a court-house and jail at Goshen and a court-house and cells at Newburgh,- seventeen thousand dollars to be expended in the former and thirteen thousand dollars in the latter town. The act applied for was passed by the Legis- lature in April, 1841, and the erection of the build- ings begun soon after. In their external appearance they are alike, and were from plans furnished by T. 'latter being provided for by general tax upon the M. Niven, architect. The basement of that at New- burgh is occupied in part by cells, which are not necessary at Goshen, the county jail being a separate building at that place. The site of the Newburgh building was enlarged to an open square by private subscriptions of citizens.

Originally the county clerk and the surrogate had their offices at their dwellings; subsequently in the reconstructed court-house. At a later period a clerk's and surrogate's office was erected on the west side of the site now occupied by the court-house at Goshen. It was a small building of brick, and was moved a short distance south in 1842, but in moving its walls were cracked, which gave rise to the necessity for the erection of the present clerk's office, which was built in 1851 and occupied in the fall of that year.+ It is a brick structure of one story, fireproof, and was oc- cupied for some years by the clerk and the surrogate. At the annual session of the supervisors in 1873, the erection of a building for the use of the surrogate and the supervisors was authorized, from plans sub- mitted by Cornelius Ackerman, architect, and C. M. Thompson and J. H. Vail, appointed as building com- mittee. The contract was awarded to Thomas Dob- bin, of Newburgh, and the building completed in the summer of 1874, at a cost of seven thousand four hun- dred and seven dollars and eighty-five cents. The structure is of brick, two stories high, and presumed to be fireproof.

The support of the poor of the county and of its several towns, with the exception of the town and

county, and the former, which was administered in the form of temporary relief, by tax upon the town in which it was afforded. Various methods were from time to time considered for administering the support required for permanent paupers, resulting ultimately in the passage by the Legislature (Nov. 27, 1824) of an act to provide for the establishment of county houses for both town and county poor. This act was amended (April 4, 1828) by providing for the submis- sion to the people of the towns, at an annual town- meeting, of the question of adopting the county sys- tem, and, if approving, to so instruct their supervisors and file their action with the county clerk. The peo- ple of Blooming-Grove were the first to move for the adoption of the system in Orange, by appointing, at their town-meeting in 1828, a committee to make in- quiry in regard to it, and the probable expense of its establishment. This committee-composed of Joseph Mclaughlin, Joseph Moffat, and Robert Denniston- made a lengthy report (Feb. 19, 1829), in which the results of the system in the county of Ontario were presented, and the rapidly increasing poor rates of the county dwelt upon,-the expense of supporting the town and county poor during the previous year hav- ing been as follows :

Tax for County Poor. $1063.08

Tax for Town Poor. $1000

Walkill ..

Deerpark ..

359.59

Minisink

332.25

400

Warwick

122.84

900

Monroe ...

321.65

350

Blooming-Grove.

185.54

700

Cornwall

262.15

450

New Windsor

119.48

700

Montgomery

167.82

1000

Crawford.

119.39

400

Calhoun (Mount Hope).

208.42

250

Newburgh

263.24

500

Goshen.

391.98

750

$3917.93

$7400

Whole annual expense.

$11,317,93

It was thought that this expense could be greatly

# Newburgh withdrew from the county aystem by act of March 13, 1853.

¿ Report, March 23, 1829. In some instances the poor were sold for their own support.

* The first effort for a new county was made in 1822, when it was pro- posed to give it the name of " Jackson ;" the second in 1832, when " New- burgh" was fixed upon as the name. The third effort was made in 1858, -the new county to be called " llighland." The two former were pre- dicated upon the refusal of the western towns to consent to the erection of a court-house at Newburgh.

+ The resolution for its construction was introduced in the board of supervisors in the fall of 1850, by R M. Vail. The contract was awarded to Francis Boyd, of Newburgh, architect. The building committee was composed of R. M. Vail, of Goshen; James R. Dickson, of Newburgh ; and Daniel Fullerton, of Wawayanda. The cost of the building and furniture was aix thousand two hundred and fifty dollars.

COURTS, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, ETC.

reduced and a better support provided by the new sys- tem, the cost of the establishment of which was esti- mated at ten thousand one hundred and ninety dollars. The committee suggested a meeting of delegates from the several towns, which was held on their call at Goshen on the 22d of March; John McGarrah, of Monroe, chairman, and Stacey Beakes, of Wallkill, secretary. This meeting approved the county system, and requested the officers of the different towns to sub- mit the question to the electors at the ensuing town- meetings. The question was accordingly submitted, and, the towns consenting, the board of supervisors met at Goshen in October to take such further action as was required. At this meeting a committee was appointed to consider and report ; and at a subsequent meeting, in November, full powers were given a com- mittee to purchase a site, with the necessary land, and proceed with the erection of buildings. On the 6th of February, 1830, the proposals for erecting the build- ings were opened and the contract awarded to John H. Corwin and Samuel Bull of Wallkill, for seven thonsand two hundred and eighty-nine dollars. As the general act authorized the expenditure of seven thousand dollars only for land and buildings, applica- tion was at once made to the Legislature for power to raise five thousand dollars additional, and subse- quently for one thousand dollars for land .* At their November meeting (1829) the supervisors appointed the following persons as the first board of superintend- ents: Gilbert Holmes, of Newburgh; Jesse Wood, Jr., of Warwick ; Daniel Corwin, of Wallkill, and William Smith and John Wilson, of Goshen, who appointed (November) Festus A. Webb, of Minisink, keeper, at a salary of five hundred dollars .; The terms of the general law were fully complied with on the 29th of March, 1831, when the house was opened, and the distinction between town and county poor abolished except in temporary relief, which was con- tinued by the towns. During the eight months em- braced in the first report of the superintendents, four hundred and thirty-two persons were relieved at an expense of five thousand five hundred and eighty-nine dollars and eighty-eight cents ; and the apparent econ- omy of the system shown in the statement that for the support of the county poor alone, from Dec. 1, 1830, to March 31, 1831, had been expended four thousand eight hundred and ninety-four dollars and twenty-two cents.# The cost of the house, with one hundred and twenty- eight acres of land,¿ was twelve thousand dollars. The original building has been improved and others erected at different times, and the property now em- braces the main asylum, erccted in 1830, fifty by one hundred and fifty feet, three stories and a half high,

with accommodations for three hundred persons; a lunatic asylum adjoining on the northwest, erected in 1848 by Riley & McFarr, thirty by fifty feet, with ac- commodations for about thirty lunatics ; a separate building on the south for colored people, erected in 1865 by B. H. Corwin, with accommodations for one hundred persons.| Adjoining the original asylum on the northwest is the new asylum for the enstody and care of the chronic insane, furnished with all modern conveniences,-the first of its kind erected in the State. Its construction was authorized by the board of supervisors, whose attention was called to its necessity by J. H. Goodale, superintendent, at a special session held Aug, 12, 1874, when the board appointed Messrs. D. Thompson, D. M. Wade, and M. Shuit a commit- tee to examine the matter, who reported (December 2d) that the representations which had been made by Mr. Goodale were fully sustained ; that at the county house thirty insane persons were confined to fifteen rooms ; that additional room was absolutely required ; that the annual expense of maintenance in State asy- lums of thirty-eight persons was seven thousand and twenty-four dollars, and that it was believed this sum could be largely reduced and at the same time the in- mates of the house be better cared for by the erection of an additional building of sufficient size to accom- modate all the chronic insane of the county.

The report was accepted and the erection of the proposed building voted. Plans submitted by Jobn C. Sloat, architect, were adopted, and Messrs. Owen, Bell, and Shuit, of the board, and J. H. Goodale, superintendent, appointed building committee. The contract for the building was awarded to Thomas Dobbin, of Newburgh ; and the corner-stone was laid June 11, 1875. The dimensions of the building are : length, eighty feet; width, forty feet; height, four and a half stories ; height of ceilings, average ten feet ; walls hard-finished throughout. A corridor fourteen feet wide traverses each story, and the rooms, each ten feet ten inches deep by seven feet in width, are arranged on either side. It will accommodate about one hundred persons. The cost of the structure was provided for by certificates of indebtedness, issued by the board of supervisors for twenty thousand dol- lars, payable five thousand dollars annually. The farm now contains two hundred and sixty-three acres, of which two hundred are tillable, and is supplied with all necessary outbuildings. The present valu- ation of the estate is about seventy thousand dollars.

The first board of supervisors of the present county assembled at Goshen, May 28, 1798, and was composed of John Vail, Goshen ; Francis Crawford, New Wind- sor; Reuben Tooker, Newburgh ; Anselem Helme, Cornwall ; Jacobus Post, Warwick ; Nathan Arnout, Minisink; James Finch, Deerpark; David Galatian, Montgomery ; and Andrew McCord, Wallkill. The business of the session was confined to the audit of

* The first act was passed March 3, 1830; the second Feb. 5, 1833.

+ Five superintendents were appointed until 1838; after that, and until 1857, three. In 1857 the number was reduced to one, to be elected by the people. James O. Adams was then chosen. .

# The poor were first brought to the house from different towns iu April, 1831.

¿ Subsequently increased to two hundred and sixty-three acres.

{ These buildings are all of stone quarried on the farm.

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

accounts. In the course of its subsequent history there are few salient points. It has erected three towns, -Greenville, Wawayanda, and Highlands; improved one and constructed two court-houses,-of the latter, one at Goshen with jail, and one at New- burgh with cells; two county clerk's offices and a surrogate's office at Goshen, a county almshouse, and a county asylum for the insane. In its expenditures it has been prudent, perhaps in the character of its public buildings too prudent; but it has never suf- fered the credit of the county to be impaired, or its people to be oppressed by taxation where the assess- ment was under its control. With its powers enlarged and entering upon a new political era, its future will not be without more marked influence.

CHAPTER IV.

LOCATION-PHYSIOLOGY-GEOGRAPHICAL NOMENCLATURE-CLIMATE-GEOLOGY.

THE county of Orange, erected Feb. 23, 1798, is lo- cated between 41° 8' S. and 41º 38' N. latitude,-10' E. and 43' W. longitude from the city of New York. It is bounded on the south by Rockland County and the State of New Jersey, on the west by the county of Sullivan and the State of Pennsylvania, on the north by the county of Ulster, and on the east by Hudson's River. It is centrally distant ninety miles from Albany, and contains eight hundred and thirty-eight square miles. The surface of the county is mountainous upon the southeast and northwest borders, and a rolling upland through the centre. The Kittatinny, or South Moun- tains extend in several parallel ranges from the New Jersey line northeast to the Hudson, ending in the rocky and precipitous bluffs known as the Highlands. The Shawangunk Mountains extend from the Dela- ware River northeast through the northwest corner of the county. Among the principal ridges are the Warwick, Bellvale, and Rough and Sterling ranges, near the south border of the county, and the Schune- munk range. The extreme northwest corner of the county is occupied by the series of highlands extend- ing from the Delaware River into Sullivan County. The central portion of the county, lying between the mountain systems, is å rolling upland, broken in many places by abrupt and isolated hills and the deep val- leys of streams. More than one-half of the entire surface of the county is susceptible of cultivation; and forms a fine agricultural district. Along the southwest border, extending through several towns and into New Jersey, is a low, flat region, lying upon the streams, and known as the Drowned Lands. This traet, consisting of about seventeen thousand acres, was originally covered with water and a dense growth of cedars ; but a large portion of it has been drained and reclaimed, and now forms one of the finest agricultural portions of the county. On the

extreme northwest and forming in part the boundary line of the county, the river Mongaap flows south and unites with the Delaware. Neversink River flows sonth along the west foot of the Shawangunk Moun- tains, and forms a tributary of the Delaware, the latter stream being for a short distance at this point the boundary line of the State. The Pakadasink or Shawangunk River flows north along the east foot of the Shawangunk Mountains, and forms a tributary of the Wallkill. The Wallkill or Paltz River flows north through near the centre of the county, and forms a tributary of the Hudson at Rondout, in Ulster County. Murderer's Creek and its principal tribu- tary the Otterkill flow east through near the centre of the county, and discharge their waters into the Hud- son. Wawayanda Creek flows south into New Jersey, and re-entering the county as Pochuck Creek, unites with the Wallkill. Ramapo River rises in the south part of the county and Hows south into Rockland. A number of small local streams furnish hydraulic power in other parts of the county. The principal lakes are Greenwood, Thompson's, Mombasha, and Orange, which, with a series of smaller bodies of water, add picturesqueness to the topography of the county. There are also swamp districts, in addition to the Drowned Lands, of which the Chester meadows have been largely reclaimed and are very productive.

MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS.

The Highlands are the most prominent of the mountain ranges. Approached from the north, to the right of the range stands the anciently so-called Butter Hill, a title with which Irving embalmed it in his famous but fictitious "Knickerbocker" history. It is now quite generally known as Storm-king, a title bequeathed to it by the poetie fancy of Willis, from the fact that for years it has served as a weather-signal to the inhabitants of the immediate district. At one time a cap of tog upon its crown indicates the coming of rain ; at another, clouds are seen rising over the Shawangunk range, following its course north and south, separating into two parts, the one passing over the Warwick Mountains to the Highlands, the other over the hills of Ulster to Marlborough, and both joining as it were over Butter Hill, pouring out tor- rents of rain, not unfrequently accompanied by rever- berating peals of thunder such as one rarely hears except in similarly broken mountain ranges. The ancient Dutch navigators, noticing the latter peculi- arity, preserved a record of the apparently culminating point of these peals in the Dunderberg, situated far- ther south. Butter Hill has an altitude of fifteen hundred and twenty-four feet. Its ascent from the river-front is precipitous ; on the north, however, it is crossed by wagon-roads.

Cro'-nest, adjoining Butter Hill on the south, is the second peak of the range, rising above the Hudson fourteen hundred and eighteen feet. Its modern name preserves in substance its Algonquin title, which, in

GEOGRAPHIICAL NOMENCLATURE.

ancient records, is written Navesing, signifying "a re- sort for birds." The name is retained in the Sandy Hook highlands and in the Neversink River in Sul- livan and Orange, the latter as well as the Hudson having on its border a Cro'-nest,-its original Nave- sing. Bear Mountain is the third principal elevation, rising thirteen hundred and fifty feet above the river. Mount Independence forms the background of the plateau at West Point, and is crowned with the crumb- ling walls of Fort Putnam. Just below, in a gorge in the rocks dividing the sites of Forts Clinton and Montgomery, flows Poplopen's Kill, at the mouth of which the county line leaves the Hudson and from thenee passes amidst the hills southwesterly. In suc- cessive proximity are the elevations known as Black Rock and Deer Hill, Ant Hill, Lawyer's Hill, Mount Rascal, and Peat, Pine, Cold, and Round Hills. Fol- lowing the range we meet Blacktop, Black-eup, and Long Hills, the ancient Dutch Dunderberg, Torn Mountain, and Cape Hill, Tom Jones' Mountain, and Hemlock Hill. To this may be added as objects of interest by the way, Kidd's Pocket-book, the Lover's Rocking-stone, the Giant's Haunt, the Giant's Slip- per, Picnic Rock, Poised Rock, and Erlin's Bluff,-a singular mingling of poetie and commonplace titles, and suggestive of paucity in proper orthologic terms. The Dunderberg and Torn Mountain are east of the county line, and, though former residents of Orange, now grace the borders of Rockland. In this enu- meration they serve the purpose of territorial monu- ments. The Torn forms the right shoulder of the Ramapo Valley ; its name and its appearance alike suggest the violence with which it was upheaved or torn from its fellows, although in local acceptation "steeple" is understood to explain its title and re- semblance.

No mountain range is so well known in Europe, nor is there one with which the history of our own nation is so intimately associated. The visitor at Westminster Abbey reads there the name of André; the story of Arnold is sown broadcast through American schools. Both point to one centre : the Highlands of the Hudson,-the one awakening regret at the fate of the young and gifted; the other nerving the hearts of thousands to love of country. Aside from its his- tory, the range has an economic character. It tem- pers the winds of the sea-board, and bears upon its sheltering breast the fiercest blasts of many storms. Of Storm-king and Cro'-nest it has been well said, by a recent writer, "They have a charm that might induee a man to live in their shadow for no other purpose than to have them always before him, day and night, to study their ever-changing beauty. For they are never twice alike; the clouds make varying pictures all day long on their wooded sides, and no- where have we seen more wonderful effects of shadow and sunshine. Under the frown of a low thunder- cloud they take on a grim majesty that makes their black masses strangely threatening and weird; one'

forgets to measure their height, and their massive, strongly-marked features, by any common standard of every-day measurement, and they seem to over- shadow all the scene around them, like the very rulers and controllers of the coming storm. And when the sunlight comes back again, they seem to have brought it, and to look down with a bright be- nignity, like giant protectors of the valley below."

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History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 7

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