History of Rockland County, New York : with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Part 61

Author: Cole, David, 1822-1903, ed. cn; Beers, J. B., & co., New York, pub
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : J. B. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 993

USA > New York > Rockland County > History of Rockland County, New York : with biographical sketches of its prominent men > Part 61

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Aaron Blauvelt, born Sept 12th 1738, died March 8th 1801.

Cornelius A. Blauvelt, died Feb 25th 1843 aged 76 y. 4 m. I d.

James Onderdonk, born July 20th 1752, died Aug. 16th 1806.

Adrian Onderdonk, died Oct 12th 1818 aged 86 y. 7 m. 17 d.

Adrian Onderdonk jr., died Jan 31st 1835 aged 78 y. 9 m. 26 d.

The families of Onderdonks so frequently found in this

part of our town, are all descended from Adrian Onder- donk, a cotemporary of Charles Mott who lived in Jamaica in 1711. The family settled first near Piermont. The Blauvelts and the Tallmans come from Tappan. The Van Ordens are from. Clarkstown. The Gurnees, the Coes, the Johnsons, and others have been elsewhere mentioned.

IV. Between Kakiat and the Mountains. On September 21st 1739, when Charles Clinton, in surveying Cheese- cocks Patent, came in his journey from "Van Dusers in ye Clove" to " the house of Edward Jeffers " near the 9th mile stone, to a point about 1/2 mile east of Suffern, he makes this note in his journal: "Observed houses and settlements on every side." He was probably standing at the time upon the land of Coenard Wannamaker* whose two sons Peter, and Richard, were then at home. He has told us before that he saw on the Sobrisco Tract near Tallman's, the house of Samuel Francisco, a free negro and near by, on their respective farms, the houses of Solomon Peterson and his brother Jacob, also free negroes. . He might have seen, though he does not men- tion it, the stone house, 20 feet square, built by Philip Vors (Fox), in the year 1726, which stood near the 14th mile stone where the house of David Fox now stands. Indeed, part of the foundation of this old house may still be seen in the cellar of the house of Mr. Fox.

¡house stood 150 yards to the west, near a large spring. In 1792 the third house was supplanted by a stone struc- ture, built upon the same foundation, to which last build- ing David Fox added the present wooden structure in 1872. Philip Vors came to this part of the country di- rectly from Germany.

About the year 1740, Peter, eldest son, as we have as- sumed, of Coenard Wannamaker, moved from his father's home near the New Jersey line to a point about two miles northeast of Suffern, where he settled upon 200 acres of land. The foundation of his original house forms part of the house at present occupied by Mr. George R. Mapes. His children were Henry, Adolphus, and Margaret wife of Peter Haring. Henry married a Miss Fredericks, to whom were born Peter, James, Ab- ram, Margaret wife of John Osborn, and Elizabeth wife of Frederick Smith.

Peter married Elizabeth, daughter of John Ryer. Their two sons were Henry, who went to Canada, and Jolin, who married Annie, daughter of John King. From this John Wannamaker the large family of Wannamakers living in or about Suffern descend.

Another early settler in this part of the town was John George Esler, who, about 1750, built the old stone house on the Haverstraw road, about three-fourths of a mile north of Suffern, commonly called the Carlough house.

"Though Coenard Wannamaker did not secure a deed for his land tilt 1753.

266

HISTORY OF ROCKLAND COUNTY.

His son Henry sold 77 acres of the farm to John Suffern in 1776. Elizabeth, daughter of Henry, born 1740, married George Snider, grandfather of Jacob Snider, Esq., of Spring Valley.

Another early settler was Jacobus Henricus Goetchius, who married Rachel, daughter of John Zabriskie, from whom he received 300 acres in the Zabriskie Tract. Still other names prominent in this part of the town prior to the Revolution were Frederick, Springsteen, Carlongh, Haring, Straut, Van Buskirk, Ackerman, Banta, Quacken- bosh, and others.

The field notes of a survey of the New Jersey line, made in October 1774, will give interesting information, not only concerning settlers along its line at that date, but also concerning the situation of roads, fields, woods, etc.

In reading these notes it is only to be remembered that 80 chains make a mile, and that the town of Ramapo beginning near the 9th runs to the 20th mile stone.

Starting October 25th 1774 from the 8th mile stone on a course " N. 54° 15' W. at 5 Chains 60 Links, a road: at 45 Chains, Northward John Maybee's house: at 80 Chains marked a black oak sapling with No. IX on the South Easterly side and put stones round it, in thick saplings about 2 Chains Eastward of a field."

Hence " N. 54° 15' W. 80 Chains ended in a field," where " set a stake marked with No. X and piled stones about it, about 8 Chains from Jacob Deason's house."

Hence " N. 54° 15' W. at 23 Chains, a branch of Sad dle River; at 75 Chains 50 Links, Saddle River: at 80 Chains left a poplar stake marked with XI and heap of stones about it."

Hence "N. 54° 15' W. at 49 Chains, Matoktemack Brook: at 53 Chains, Southward Hendrick Shelden's house: at 60 Chains 50 Links, a brook: at So Chains, set a hickory stake with No. XII and stones round it, about 4 Chains Westward of a road. Lodged at Peter Bush's 7/2-Eastward of 12 Miles End."

" 26th. N. 54° 15' W. 80 Chains, set a chestnut stake No. XIII. with stones round it in woods about 14 of a mile Southward of -"

" N. 54° 15' W. at 10 Chains 12 Link, Northward a house about 2 Chains distant, across two barracks: at 36 Chains, a bog about to Chains Northward of Coontod Friscines: at 80 Chains set an ash stake with No. XIV and stones round it in woods about 3 rods North East- ward of a rock about ten feet high."

"N. 54° 15" W. at 39 Chains, Northward 16 Chains 20 Links Philip Vors house: at 43 Chains, 5 feet South. ward of the North End of Philip Vors barn: at 55 Chains, in Haverstraw River: at 76 Chains, the post road: at 80 Chains in Derrick Onemaker's orchard, being 17 Links on a course N. 68° E. from the S. W. corner apple tree at a stake No. XV."

" N. 54° 15' W. at 34 Chains in Ramapo River: at 80 Chains marked a Spanish oak tree with No. XVI amongst notorious rocks."

" N. 54° 15' W. at 14 Chains 15 Links, on the top of mountains: at 80 Chains marked a white oak sapling

with No. XVII., put stones on the Northwest side of said sapling. This mile mountainous and rocky. Stopped at sundown and lodged at Buskirks."

"27th. Begun at the 17 miles end and continued our range N. 54° 15' West: at 44 Chains, square Northward, about 12 or 15 Chains, a high, steep, rocky mountain: at 60 Chains in a swamp: at 68 Chains, the West edge of said swamp: at 80 Chains set up a chestnut stake with No. XVIII, in negro Guy's improvement, and put stones round it, Northeasterly of his house."

"N. 54° 15' W. at 3 chains, southward about 2 chains negro Guy's house: at 24 chains a brook: at 56 chains 50 links, the est edge of Van Dusers Pond: at 68 chains 50 links, the west edge of said pond: at 70 chains south- ward about 2 chains, a house: at So chains left a bass wood stake No. XIX, with stones around it amongst rocks near a foot path."

" N. 54° 15' W. at 38 chains, southward of a little house that is north of Shepherds Pond: at 80 chains set a chestnut stake, and heap of stones about it, No. XX. Stopped at night and lodged at Sloat's, having about three miles to walk."

We append to these notes the situation of the mile stones as determined by the survey of 1874: IX. In open field on land of D. Atkinson. X. In open field on land of Jamies Ledwith. XI. In grove of cedars on land of J. D. Buskirk. XII. In edge of woods on land of A. Litchult. XIII. In open field on land of J. H. Fisher. XIV. In woods on lands of W. W. Way. XV. In open field on land of Dr. A. S. Zabriskie. XVI. In woods west of Suffern station. XVII. On mountains west of Suffern station. XVIII. On land of H. L. Pierson. XIX. In woods on mountain west of Negro Pond. XX. In open field on line between J. H. Tidaback and G. Bab- cock.

V. In the mountains:

In the field notes just quoted, we read: "Set up a chestnut stake with No. XVIII in negro Guy's improve- ment." The presence at this point in the mountains of a negro, whose first name is said to have been Aury, draws attention to the fact that in the mountains in the western part of Ramapo at a very early date a large number of negroes were to be found. Whence they came we cannot tell. Tradition among them speaks of a "good Mr. Rutherford who allowed people to settle on his land where they chose."* In all probability they found it for their safety in those days when the " Negro had no rights which the white man was bound to respect," to dwell apart by themselves in these mountains.

It was after one of these negroes, whose name is also said to have been Guy, and whose cleared field and orchard can even now be seen on the west side of that body of water that the pond which the Indians called Pothat or Potake, the surveyors of 1774 Van Duser's, and the early settlers in the mountains Sand Pond, came to be known as Negro Pond.

*Walter Rutherford was a large property owner in northern New Jersey after the Revolution.

26;

RAMAPO-THE REVOLUTION.

REVOLUTIONARY ITEMS.

The very situation of the town, crossed by the only direct road from Kings Ferry to Morristown and the south, and containing, between the Hudson and the Del- aware Rivers, the only pass through which access could be had to the interior of New York, would render it cer- tain that Ramapo must have been the arena of stirring scenes in Revolutionary days, even though there were no Camp Hill in the north, or fortifications still visible in the pass at the south. It is greatly to be regretted, in the preparation of this history, that it has been utterly im- possible to find time to make a thorough search of Revo- lutionary documents, and that, therefore, it is only in our power to give items, and items, too, which are far from doing justice to what ought to be a full and inter- esting chapter in our work. "It will be recollected," says one,* "that the Revolutionary Army was three times encamped in this valley (the Ramapo Pass). It was here adown these glens that the intercepted mes- senger of Washington passed with dispatches meant to delude Sir Henry Clinton into a belief that New York was the point of attack designed by the combined French and American forces. At the moment these intercepted documents were published in New York and the city put into a careful state of defense, the whole forces of Washington were rapidly and silently on their route to Yorktown.

"This politic stroke of Washington was told with much spirit by many of the older inhabitants of the valley. The writer heard it from the lips of a gen- tleman of eighty-seven, with a mind still clear and vig- orous, who had the incident from De La Montagne, himself the intercepted messenger. When Washington gave him the package, he carefully pointed out the route designed for him to take, and then resumed his writing, for the great man was busily employed at a small table. De La Montagne saw at once the way would lead him directly under a battery of the enemy, who at that time held what is called the Clove or Ram- apo Pass. He remained at the door, hesitating to obey, d fearful to explain the difficulty. Washington lifted up his head. 'What! not gone, sir ?' he cried. De La Montagne then said, 'Why. General, I shall be taken if I go through the Clove.' Washington bent his cyes sternly upon him, and brought his foot down heavily upon the floor, 'Your duty, sir, is not to talk, but to obey.' "

It was from the top of the Torne Mountain in the clove that General Washington is said to have watched the movements of the British fleet in New York Bay.

It was at the opening of the clove that Aaron Burr, in 1777, after being appointed lieutenant-colonel, " joined his regiment, then stationed at Ramapo."t

"In September 1777 the enemy came out on both sides of the Hudson simultaneously, in considerable force, say from two to three thousand men. On the

*E. Oakes Smith, writing in 1849.

"These facts are gathered from " Memoirs of Aaron Burr " by Mat- thew L. Davis.

east side (at Peekskill) was a major-general of our army, with an effective force of about 2,000 men. The enemy advanced, and our general retired, without en- gaging them. Our barracks and storehouses, and the whole village of Peekskill, were sacked and burnt and the country pillaged. On the west side, at the mouth of the Clove, near Suffern, was Colonel Burr, com- manding Malcohn's regiment, about 350 men. On the first alarm he marched to find the enemy, and on the same night attacked and took their picket-guard, rallied the country, and made such show of war, that the en- emy retreated the next morning."

While in charge of the troops at Ramapo, Colonel Burr was assiduous in his attentions upon young Mrs. Theodosia Provost, widow of the late Colonel Provost* of the British army, whose residence was at Paramus about a dozen miles to the south. The lions of Paramus to-day (we quote from an article recently published in the New York Evening Post) are "the quaint old Dutch Reformed Church (shading a still more ancient place of graves) where Aaron Burr was married, and the Hermit- age, an old-fashioned country seat behind a grove of forest trees, where he wooed and won his wife. This house stands about a mile southwest of the church, near the Erie Railway. But little more than the walls of the structure of Burr's day are incorporated in the present dwelling, although we were shown into the wide, roomy hall with the assurance that it was the very same to which the bridal party had returned a century before. Since Burr's wedding-day, however, the structure has in fact been almost transformed.

"In the pleasant old mansion as it was at the opening of the Revolution, dwelt a family of ladies in good repute throughout the neighborhood for their simplicity of life and unostentatious charities. The head of the family was Madame Theodosia Provost, widow of Colonel Pro- vost, of the British army, and there were besides, her mother, Mrs. de Visme, her sister, and her two boys, John and Robert. The ladies came of an old English family of position Without being strictly beautiful, they were witty, intelligent, and cultivated, and as hostilities deepened and the patriot army was drawn into their neighborhood, their house became a favorite resort for the American officers. There are many letters and docu- ments still extant which speak of the estimation in which these ladies were held James Monroe, writing to Mrs. Provost in 1778, while an officer in the army, called her his "dear little friend." Washington corresponded with her on the subject of the exchange of her brother Peter de Visme. Judge William Patterson, with whom Burr began his law studies, in a letter to the latter speaks of her as the " good gentlewoman." It is not probable that Burr had met her before his appointment, in June, 1777. as Lieutenant-Colonel of Colonel Malcolm's regiment. Stationed with his men at Ramapo, he was introduced by a friend at the ' Hermitage,' as the ladies styled their

*It was to this Provost that the Provost Patent wasgranted. After the war, we find Theodosia Provost then Mrs. Aaron Burr making afti- davit that she had signed her name to the deed conveying Provost Pat- ent to Morris, De Laney & Zubriskie, without compulsion.

268

HISTORY OF ROCKLAND COUNTY.

home, and formed an acquaintance with its mistress that soon ripened into the warmest regard and affection. The courtship and marriage of Burr is the first incident in his career calculated to lead the thoughtful student to question the correctness of the generally received estimate of his character. That estimate represents him as intensly selfish and supremly ambitious. Here, at the beginning of his career, we see him wooing a lady without fortune or friends, one who in fact, as an English woman and the widow of a British officer, might be expected seriously to jeopard the fortunes of an ambitious young soldier and politician, and who did cost him the Presidency in 1800. This, in the face of pretty plain intimations that an alliance with one of the most powerful families was in his power. Few modern ladies can boast a lover so bold and ardent as was Burr. Through winter snow and April mud, in darkness or storm, he thought nothing of a gallop of seven or eight miles for a quiet evening beside the lady of his choice: and this in troublous times, through a country full of enemies, and with the knowledge that many an ambuscade was laid for his capture. One of the most characteristic of these escapades occurred in 1779, he being at the time in command of the Westchester lines with his headquarters at White Plains some eight miles east of the Hudson. One dark night Burr detailed six of his trustiest troopers to have ready at a point near the present Sunnyside a large barge well supplied with blankets and buffalo skins. At eight P. M. he left the camp, galloped leisurely to the river, inspecting guards and outposts on the way, and reached the barge about nine. Then his horse was quickly thrown and tied and with his rider ferried over the river. Reaching the other side the steed was as quickly loosed, the Colonel mounted, and leaving the men to guard the boat until his return, spurred out into the darkness. Thirteen miles of rough, banditti-infested country lay between him and our old mansion at Paramus. He was there at midnight. At two A. M. he was in the saddle, before the dawn broke he clattered down upon his drowsy troopers at the river, and at reveille the Colonel was inspecting his outposts with his usual imperturbability. He paid at least two of these visits during the three months he was in command of the 'lines,'

"On July 2, 1782, the marriage was celebrated in the little Dutch Reformed Church which has been mentioned. Local gossips describe it as having been an affair of con- siderable importance. All the ' genteel' of the neighbor- hood were present as friends of the bride, and many officers of the army in full uniform graced the occasion. After the wedding festivities the pair proceeded to Al- bany, where Burr had but lately opened a law office. The lady never returned to her old home again except for brief visits. It was retained for a while by the de Vismes, but finally passed from their hands to strangers."

"In the beginning of June 1779 Sir Henry Clinton captured the forts at Stony Point and Verplanck's Point, and threatened West Point. His force in this direction was upwards of six thousand rank and file. The communication between General Washington, who

was in New Jersey, and General McDougall, who was at Newburgh, was greatly embarrassed. Bandits were placed by the British in or near the passes through the chains of mountains leading to Sussex, for the purpose of capturing the expresses charged with dispatches. At this critical moment Colonel Burr was on a visit to McDougall, who informed him that he had made various unsuccessful attempts to communicate with Washing- ton, and that his expresses had either been captured or had deserted. After apologizing to Burr, who was no longer in active service, the general stated the import- ance of the commander-in-chief's knowing the position and movements of the enemy. He then requested Burr to be bearer of a verbal communication to Washington on the subject. The mission was undertaken and suc- ceeded. On this enterprise a most amusing incident occurred. Colonel Burr arrived at the iron works of the elder Townsend in Orange county (just over the Ramapo town and Rockland county lines) with a tired and worn out horse. No other could be obtained. A half broken mule named Independence was procured and the colonel mounted. The mule ran off with his rider and ascended a high bank, on the side of which stood a coal house filled with coal through an aperture in the roof. Independence entered the coal house at full speed, the colonel firmly keeping his seat. Both came down an inclined plane of coal not less than thirty feet in height. On reaching the ground Burr hired a man to lead the animal a mile or two, and then again mounted him and pursued his journey."

After the capture of Stony Point, a detachment of British prisoners were put in a barn belonging to Abram De Baan, then located one-eighth of a mile east of Erastus Johnson's, and one-eighth of a mile north of the present highway. During the night one of these prisoners cried out in his sleep " Fire," and the guards, mistaking his cry for an order to them, did fire directly into the barn, kill- ing three and wounding eighteen. Next morning the three persons killed were buried near by. At that time the American troops encamped here were said to have been under the charge of Generals Muhlenburg and Wolford.

We close these imperfect items of Revolutionary his- tory with a quotation from the "History of New York during the Revolution," by Thomas Jones, volume II, page 348.

" In September 1777 General Washington was totally defeated at the Brandywine. In October following he met with the same fate at Germantown, and in July 1778 he fared in the same manner at Monmouth, New Jersey. After this he retired to inaccessible mountains on the west side of the Hudson, in the province of New York. In 1781 he passed the river and a junction was formed between his army and the French army, under Rocham- beau, from Rhode Island, at the White Plains. The al- lied army now paraded about the lines of Kings Bridge, to the great terror of the British general in New York, but nothing was done. In September the allies passed

MAIN ROADS TO THE HUDSON RIVER

IN THE TOWN OF RAMAPO, 1823.

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269

RAMAPO-THE ERIE RAILROAD-TURNPIKES.

the Hudson,* went through the Jerseys, Pennsylvania, marks the line of one of the oldest post roads in the Maryland, and entered Virginia, where, being joined by a corps under the Marquis De Lafayette, the militia of the country, and a French army from the West Indies, he laid seige to Yorktown.

ROADS.

Take your position at the " Point of the Mountains," Suffern. Nature as well as man has made this the start- ing point of roads.

I. New York, Lake Erie, and Western Railroad.

This Erie Road obtained its charter April 24th 1832. Work was commenced upon it in 1836, and trains were running from Pierniont to Goshen in 1841.t

According to the original charter, the road, in coming from the west, could not pass into New Jersey; and, hence, from Suffern it followed the line of the State to Piermont, forming what is now the " Piermont Branch."

The road which approaches Suffern from the south is the Paterson and Ramapo Railroad, opened in 1848,from Paterson to the State line, and connected with the Erie by the Union Railroad, .79 of a mile long. Both these roads, together with the Paterson and Hudson Railroad, chartered January 21st 1831 and opened in 1834, and by which Paterson is connected with Jersey City, were leased by the Erie Company, September 2d 1852, and now form part of the main line of this road.

When first opened the Erie had but one track, with a The Orange Turnpike Company opened the road di- gauge of six feet. In 1853, a second track was added, at | rectly parallel to the present railroad, from the New Jer- which time the road, as it passed through Ramapo Works, sey line to the " Point of the Mountains," and then, as it passed by the present Hillburn works, lifted the road from the valley to the side of the mountain. was changed from along the side of the mountain on the turnpike, to its present position. December 24th 1878, the laying of a third rail, giving the standard gauge from Jersey City to Buffalo was completed, since which the outside rail has gradually been taken up.

The main road enters the town at Sloatsburg and leaves at Suffern, and along its line in the town are Sloatsburg, Sterlington, Ramapo Works, Hillburn, and Suffern. The " Piermont Branch," starting from Suffern, leaves the town at Spring Valley, and along its line in the town are Suffern, Tallman's, Monsey, and Spring Valley. II. Orange Turnpike.

Running almost parallel with the present main line of the Erie is the "Orange Turnpike." This in general

State, the road leading from New Jersey through the only real pass in the mountains between the Hudson and the Delaware into the interior of the State of New York. It was formerly called the " Albany Road," because upon it, especially in winter when the Hudson was closed, reg- ular lines of stages were wont to run from New York to Albany.

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History of Rockland County, New York : with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Part 61

Author: Cole, David, 1822-1903, ed. cn; Beers, J. B., & co., New York, pub Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : J. B. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 993

Author: Cole, David, 1822-1903, ed. cn; Beers, J. B., & co., New York, pub
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : J. B. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 993