History of Ulster County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers. Vol. I, Part 20

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894. cn
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 758

USA > New York > Ulster County > History of Ulster County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers. Vol. I > Part 20

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Rightly judging that the enemy would endeavor to pene- trate farther than the Highlands, he had thus reason to fear that they would attempt Kingston, the most important town on the river between New York and Albany, and on the 10th he thus writes to the Council :

" HEADQUARTERS, MRS. FALLS, 10th October, 1777. "GENTLEMEN, -- When I wrote you last I was in great hopes of being able to have collected and eusbodied as many of the militia of this and Orange Consty, as with the two Continental Beginnents now with me cool the reinforcement promised me by Gen. I. Putnam. [ should live such a formidable force as to enable mne to prevent the rhemy's penetrating the country by throwing myself in between them aud the most important places as they moved up the river. But I am sorry to inform you I am greatly disappointel in my expectations.

"The militia do not join me as I could wish ; they are well disposed, but anxious about the immediate safety of their respective families, who for many miles back are moving yet farther from the river; many of thein extre in in the morning, return in the evening, and I never know when I have them or what my strength is. The rein- forcement I bad reisen to expect, and was promised by Gen. Putnam, I am informed by a letter from him last night, is on'y to consist of Brinkerhoff's regiment, which I am sure will not pass the river ; indeed, it would be unreasonable to expect them. This being muy situation, I think it my duty to advise you of it, ns my only hopes are that my force may not be known to the enemy, and that this may deter them from doing what if they should attempt I could not prevent.

"I have seven feld-pieces with me : five of the heaviest I have ordered on the west side of the Wallkilt towards Shawangunk, which is the route I menb to take to Kingston the moment the enemy move up the river. I wish some small works could be thrown up towards the Esopas landing, so as to cover the landing and the defles leading to the town. Every man that can fire a gun should be immediately embodied and employed at those works. I rejoice with you on the most agreeable intelligence from the northward, and thank you for the early communication of it. I know of no enemy on this side Butterhill Clove.

"The four vessels that were near Potopels Island fell down out of sight yesterday evening.

" I am, with much esteem, your most obedient servant. " GEO. CLINTON."

The regiments of militia from the lower part of Ulster County suffered considerably in killed, wounded, and pris- oners at the forts, so that it was no easy watter for Governor Clinton to collect a sufficient force to resist the threatened demonstration. On the cast bank Gen. Putnam had about six thousand men, mostly militia, and this arwy now held Sir Henry Clinton in check in this direction, although it is not quite clear that Gen. Putnam could not have ren- dereil & more important service in going to the assistance of the garrison of the Highland forts ou the 6th. At any rate, the royal generals did not seem to be much in fear of this army. Perhaps a critical narrative of the events in the Highlands during these few days, in which the matter will appear in its true light, may yet be written.

Governor Clinton says his plan, in case of the advance of the enemy, would be to make a forced march down the west side of the Wall Kill, and thus cover Kingstou. The

THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

capture of a spy by the name of Daniel Taylor, charged with a message from Sir Henry Clinton to Gen. Burgoyne, occurred on the 9th .*

· Daniel Taylor, a first lieutenant in Capt. Stewart's company, of the 9th Regiment of the royal army, as he says in his confession, was arrested October 10th, in the neighborhood of Little Britain, Orange Co., by a picket-guard of Col. Webb's regiment, under the evininand of Lient. Howe. It seems he was deceived by the uniform of the party, who were clothed in red coats, which had been recently cap tured in a British transport. Asking the name of the command- ing general, he was answered Gen. Clinton, into whose presence, at his own request, he was conducted There, instead of Sir Henry, the royal commander, he found the republican Governor, George Clinton, all be was immediately observed to put something into his mouth. But the story will be best toll in the following extract from a letter of Governor Clinton to the Council of Safety, datel Out. 11, 1777 ,Jour. Prov. Conv., i. p. 1005) :

" The letter from Clinton to Burgoyne, taken from Danicl Taylor, was enclosed in a stuall silver ball of an oval form, about the size of a fusee bullet, and shut with a screw in the middle. When he was taken oud brought before me he swallowed it. I mis- trustel this to be the case from information I received, and administered to him a very strong emetic, calculated to act either way. This had the desired effect: it brought it from him; but, though close watche-t, he h.ul the art to conceal it a second titne.

"I unle him believe I had taken one Capt. Campbell, another messenger, who was out on the same business : that I learnel from him all I wanted to know, and demandel the ball ou pain of being hung up instantly aud ent open to search for it. This brought it forth."

The contents of this letter were as follows :

" FORT MONTGOMERY, Oct. 8, 1777.

"Nous y voici, and nothing now between us but Gates. I sincerely hope this little success of ours may facilitate your operations. In answer to your letter of the 25th Sept. by C. C., I can only say I can- tuof presume to order, or even advise, for reasons obvious. I heartily wish you success. Faithfully yours.

" Gixx. BURGOYNE. HI. CLINTON."

The C. C. mentioned in the letter no doubt meant the spy. Capt. Campbell, who left the Highlands with a similar message, and, more fortunate than Taylor, reached Burgoyne, October 16th.

This bullet belonged formerly to Gen. James Talan Ige, and was exhibited at a meeting of the New York Historical Society, in 1843. It is said to be now in the possession of Chas. A. Clinton, Esq., and that the writing on the cuclosed slip of paper is nearly obliterated.

In lager's " History of Orange County" we are told that Dr. Moses Higby, then residing at " the Square," administered the emetic which aforded such convincing proof of Taylor's employment.

October 11th a general court-martial met for his trial by order of Brig. Gen. George Clinton, composed of Col. Lewis Du Bois, president, And the following members : Maja, Bradford and Huntington, and Capt4. Ellis, Savage, Watson, Wyllis. Gillespie, Conklin, Wood, Ham- Tramk, Lee, and Hueste.l. To the charge of " lurking abent the alap as a spy from the enemy." he pleal not guilty, but " confessed bis losing an express from Gen. Clinton to Gen. Burgoyne when Likes." 'The court found him guilty, " and adjudged bim to suffer ·lenth." When the little army of Governor Clinton moved down the Wall Kill to save Kingston, Taylor was taken along; and the following neral or ler, issue l on the morning of the destruction of Kingston, determined his fate :

" HEADQUARTERS AT MARBLE TOWN, " 16th October, 1777. " The sentence of the General Court-Martial, whereof Col. Du Bois Was President, against the within named Daniel Taylor, is approved, sil ordered to be carried into execution when the troops are paraded al before they march to-morrow morning.

" GEORGE CLINTON,

" Brigadier General Continental Irmy."

The centrure was not, however, carried into effect until the ls: h. Fruchtion has it that he was hanged on an apple-tree near the village et Harley. Among the articles found ou his person fand now pre- served in the Cliutau papers, Albany) were two letters from soldiers in the British army at New York, the contents of which indicate that Taylor's house was in the neighborhood of Kinderhook, N. Y. Whether

Sir James Wallace's reconnoitering expedition up the river on the 11th alarmed the Governor, and from " Little Britain, three miles from New Windsor, Oct. 12, 1777," after some general matters, he writes to the Council at Kingston as follows :

" I amu at this moment favored with your letter of yesterday. The militia of Shawangunk are now with me. I have sent a proper guard there from another quarter for the artillery, which iu my opinion is much better than to leave men of the neighborhood for that purpose. Col. Snyder's regiment may continue at Kingston to throw up the necessary works to defend the landing and town. The rest of the reinforcement from the Northward must immediately join me.

" Were the whole to continue with you they would not be able to meet the enemy should they pass by and land at Kingston, and should they take their route by lan.1, which is most likely, with my present force, which consists of the militia of this quarter of the country, two small Continental regiments, and Col. Sutherland's regiment, consist- ing of one hundred and thirty men.f Out of these I have strong guards along the river shore, who have orders to keep pace with the vessels now in the river and throw themselves between them and Kingston Lauding should they go that high up. I am persuaded that it is not only for the safety of Kingston, which I have much at heart, but for that of the whole country in general, that I should have my whole force collected to one point, as in that case I >ball be able to meet and oppose the progress of the enemy, or at least throw my- self iu between the enemy and such places as it may be an object with them to gain, which shall be my constant care to do."

The postscript adds :

" From many circumstances I um persuaded the enemy are about moving. Gen. Clinton's being out when my Lag was down yesterday, this small Heet coming up the river confirms me in this opinion, and I believe it will be by land against some of our stores and to ravage the country.";

By a resolution of the Convention, passed Dec. 21, 1775, the Ulster County jail was made the jail of Congress. §

Johannes Sleght, chairman of the Kingston committee, in a letter written on the 8th of July, 1776, tells the Provincial Congress that " it is also well known that our town has for a long time been crowded (and is yet) with a set of ministerial cut-throats, regular officers, and soldiers, sent here as prisoners."!]

The prisoners Governor Clinton directs the commissary, Abram B. Bancker,", to remove to Wawarsing, and, as there could be no doubt of the benevolent intentions of Sir Henry Clinton towards the rebel authorities and their estates, he forwarded his personal effects from his house in Little Britain to Kingston, his brother-in-law, Dr. Peter Tappen, removing Mrs. Clinton and the family to Pleasant Valley, in Dutchess County, where they remained until the marau- ders returned to New York.

A statement of the plan of government of the State, and the action upou it down to this period, will enable us to appreciate the position of affairs at this juncture.

this is the same Taylor who had been before arrestel as a Tory. as appears from the list of New York state prisoners confined at l'hila- delphin from October, 1576, to January, 1777 (Jour. Prev. Couv., i. p. 1000), may be a matter of' conjecture .- U'lster Ilist. Coll., pp. 158 -. 161.

+ Sentence seems to need other words to complete it, as " I could . not resist them."

į Jour. Prov. Couv., i. page 1009.

¿ Thid., page 231.

# Ibid., ii. page 305.

Mr. Baucher was for many years after the Revolution clerk of the Senate, and died at Kingston, Feb. 7, 1806, aged fifty-one years.

HISTORY OF ULSTER COUNTY, NEW YORK.

The Revolutionary authority in New York was exercised by a Provincial Convention, which assembled in the Ex- change, in New York City, April 20, 1775, and to which Charles De Witt, George Clinton, and Levi Pawling were sent as delegates from Ulster County. The members from this county in the subsequent Provincial Congresses were as follows :

First Provincial Congress .- Met at New York, May 23, 1775. Col. Johannes Hardenbergh, of Rosendale; Col. James Clinton, of New Windsor ; Egbert Dumond, of Kings- ton ; Charles Clinton, of Little Britain (not present) ; Chris- topher Tappen, of Kingston ; John Nicholson, of New Windsor ; and Jacob Hoornbeeck, of Rochester.

Second Provincial Congress .-- Met at New York, Nor. 14, 1775. Henry Wisner, Jr., of Wall Kill ; Matthew Rea, of Shawangunk ; Dirck Wynkoop, Jr., of Kingston ; Mat- thew Cantine, of Marbletown ; Andries De Witt, of Kings- ton ; Andries Lefevre, of New Pahz; Thomas Palmer, of Newburgh ; and Samuel Brewster, of New Windsor.

Third Provincial Congress .- Met at New York, May 14, 1776. Col. Charles De Witt, of Hurley; Col. Abra- ham Hasbrouck, of Kingston; Col. Johannes Snyder, of Kingston ; Matthew Cantine, Matthew Rea, Maj. Arthur Parks, of Montgomery; Henry Wisner, Jr., of Wall Kill; and Samuel Brewster.

In a list given at the end of the journal of this Con- gress the name of George Clinton occurs, and it is noted that he is now in his place. His name, however, is not included in the published credentials, and he was at that moment a member of the Continental Congress.

Fourth Provincial Congress, - Assembled at White Plains, in Westchester County, July 9, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was immediately adopted, and the following day the style of the House was changed to that of the " Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York." Matthew Cantine, Col. Charles De Witt, Maj. Arthur Parks, Col. Levi Pawling, Matthew Rea, Maj. Christopher Tappen, Col. Johannes Hardenbergh, and Henry Wisuer, Jr., were the representatives from Ulster County in this body. It adjourned to Fishkill, Aug. 20, 1776 ; thenee it moved to Kingston on the 10th of February, 1777

During this time the goverment was often in the hauds of a small portion of the convention, styled a Committee of Sufity, so that the public affairs could be carried on, it having been found extremely difficult to keep so large a body together at this critical period of our history .*

"Sketches of Governor George Clinton. Egbert Dumont, Arthur Parks, Moses Cantine. Cornelius C. Schoonmaker, and Henry Wisner, Jr., will be found in this work, under the head of " Bench and Bar," Chapler XX.

Col. Johannes Hardenbergh, son of the patentee of the " Handen- bergb Patent," was a member of the Colonial Assembly from 1737 to 1715, and again of the State Legislature in 1781-82. He hell the port of elonel in the first regiment of the county militia for op- wards of twenty years, and died Aug. 20, 1786, aged eighty years and Iwy months. Winn Con. Washington visited the county, in June, 17:3, Col. Hanlenbergh entertainel Mrs. Washington, with Governor and Mrs. Clinton, at his house in Rozen lale, which was recently tho residence of Mr. Cornell.

Col. Levi Fawling, of Marbletown, was a colonel of the Ulster County militia from Det. 23, 1775. He was the senior officer and

During this time the local organization was maintained, and the friends of liberty were active at home. A letter from Robert Boyd, Jr, chairman of the Ulster County committee, in June, 1776,; shows the plan of the county organization :

" The County Committee is composed of two members from each Precinct Committee, save Kingston, which claims the privilege of sending four. The members of the Precinct Committees generally attend County Committee by rotation, for their own ease and con- venience."

It is very doubtful whether the minutes of the proceed- ings of either the county or precinct committee still exist. They would be valuable for our local history, and further search for them should be made. On the 31st of January, 1777, it appears that Messrs. Duane and Robert Yates, re- turned from Kingston, reported in substance that they had conferred with the committee of Kingston, Ulster Co., and find that, if the Convention should move to that place, fifty members may obtain good accommodations; that the price will be twenty shillings per week; that the court- honse, or a large room in said building, will be convenient for the people to meet in.t It is thus probable that the Convention, or rather the Committee of Safety, first met at the court-house in Kingston.

The Convention way have changed its place of meeting for å time, in consequence of the annoyauce arising from the overcrowded state of the jail below the chamber in the court-house. Indeed, we find that on motion of Gouverneur Morris, on the 18th of March, 1777, the following curious preamble and resolution was passed :

" Whereus, From the past want of care of the prisoners now con- fined in the jail underneath the Convention Chamber the same is supposed to have become unwholesome, and very noisome and disa- grecable cflluvia arises which may endanger the health of the mueu- bers of this Couvention ; Therefore,

" Resolved, That for the preservation of their health the members of this Convention be at liberty, at their pleasure, to smoke in the Convention Chamber while the house is sitting and proceeding on business."2

Surprising to relate, this smoking resolution mnet with great opposition in a community of Dutchmen, and it only passed by a majority of three votes, the representatives of

comtuan led the handful of men who opposed the landing of the British at Esopus, Oct. 16, 1777. Diel in 1782. An account of his officin! civic services may be seen in Chapter XX. of this work. His son, Albert, was trigale major to Governor Clinton in the beginning of the war; afterwards remove l to Troy, N. Y.

John Nicholson raised a company of men for the Continental army in July, 1775. Deputy in the first Provincial Congress, and a resi- dent of New Windsor.

Jacob Hoornbeck, appointed lieutenant colonel of Pawling's regi- ment, Oct. 25, 1775. Chairman of the Rochester Committee of Safety, anl deputy to the first Provincial Congress. He died of a camp fever, after a lingering illness, Jan. 10, 1778, and was buried in the Rochester church-yard (" Hasbroack MS. Diary").

Samuel Brewster, chairman of the Precinct Committee in 1777. Was a senator from the Midhille District from 1805-8. Resided in New Windsor.

Matthew Rea, a member of the second. third, and fourth Provincial Congresses, and also a member of Assembly from Ulster Coanty from 177-79. Le-ided at Shawangunk.

Sketches of Charles De Witt und Christopher Tappen will be found in Chapter XX. of this work.

1 American Archives, Ith series, vi. page SOS.

# Jour. Prov. Cour., i. page 791. ¿ ILi., page $12.

THIE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

two counties not having been able to agree on this momen- tous question. No such dispute arose in the council of New Amsterdam in the days of " Peter the Headstrong," and it is evident that the elements were much disturbed in these latter days. A horrible account of the condition of the jail in Kingston, in April, 1776, is given in a letter of Bryan Leffertse, a state prisoner there, preserved in the Mercantile Library, New York.

I have been somewhat minute in this particular, because it is the general belief -- and well founded, too, I think-that the constitution was adopted at the inn of Capt. Evert Bogardus, the rebuilt edifiee being afterwards known as the " Constitution House," a stone building standing on the corner of Maiden Laue and Fair Street. In the year 1556, having lecome much dilapidated, it was demolished to make way for the residence of James W. Baldwin, Esq., its owner .*

After much discussion the Convention adopted the State constitution on the evening of Sunday, the 20th of April, 1777, and pursuant to a resolution it was proclaimed at the court-house at eleven o'clock on the morning of the 22d following, and on the 13th of May this distinguished body finally dissolved, leaving power in the hands of a Council of Safety. The election under the constitution was held,t and on the 30th of July the Council declared George Clin- ton duly chosen Governor; a copy of the proclamation issued on that occasion has been printed in our " Collee- tions" (vol. i. p. 66).

On the same day it was

" Ordered, That the said proclamation be made and published by the Sheriff of Ulster Coanty, at or near the cort-house, in Kingston, Ulster County, at six o'clock this afternoon."

And in order that due ceremony should be observed in this matter they further

" Resolved and Ordered, That Capt. Evert Bogardus and Capt. John Elmendorph do cause the companies of militia under their re- spective commandis to appear at the Court-Hva-e in. Kingston at six o'clock this afternoon properly armed and accoutred, at which time and place His Excellency, George Clinton, will be proclaimed Gov- ernor of this State.";

The record assures ns that it was done in due form in the presence of the Council, and thus was inaugurated the first republican government of the now " Empire State." It was a great day for Kingston ; hut the people of this devoted town not long after expiated in dust an i ashes their attach- went to the principles of liberty, and the peculiar distine- tion their village enjoyed as the seat of the new State gov- ernment.

$ A wood-cut of this building is given in Barber & Howe's Histor- ienl Collections of New York, page 558. A more artistic one may be found in Losging's Field-Book of the Revolution, vol. i. page 387. But these authors are in error when they stato it to be the identical building in which the constitution was framned. The stone walls of the original structure doubtless remainel. but all that fire would con- ruine was destroyed by Vanghan. As will afterwards appear. only the house on Wall Street now belonging to Abraham Van Steenburgh escaped the fire of 1777.

f " In the county of Ulster, at the court-house in the town of Kings- Bott ; at the house of Ann Du Bois, in New Paltz; at the house of Sarah Hill, in Hanover Precinct ; at the house of Martin Wygant, in thy precinct of Newburgh."-Jour. Proc. Cone., i. p. 917.

: Jour. Prov. Cons., i. p. 1022.

The newly-chosen Legislature was appointed to meet at Kingston on the 1st of August, but for weighty reasons Governor Clinton prorogued it to the 20th of August, and again until September 1st; however, no quorum of the Senate appeared until the 9th of that mouth, and the Assembly did not organize until the following day.

At this first Legislature, Col. Levi Pawling, of Marble- town, attended as the senator from the Ulster County portion of the Middle District; and John Cantine, of Marbletown,§ Johannes G. Hardenbergh, of Rochester, Matthew Rea, of Shawangunk, Cornelius C. Schoonmaker, of Shawangunk, Col. Johannes Snyder, of Kingston, || and Henry Wisner, Jr., of Wall Kill, were the members of Assembly from Ulster County, then comprehending all the river shore from Mur- derer's Creek, near the Highlands, to the Sawyer's Creek, just above Sangerties, and embracing the present county of Sullivan with Delaware up to the east branch of the Dela- ware River, and the northeastern towns of Orange.

The Senate sat at the house of Abraham Van Gaasbeek, a stone building constructed after the then " Esopus faslı- ion," the last one on the west side of East Front Street, near the junetion of that street with North Front. This faet is shown by an entry in the journal of the Provincial Convention, { its own records not mentioning any room.

This house has recently been occupied by the Rev. Dr. Westbrook. A room in Captain Bogardus' inn was called the " Assembly Chamber," and the lower house probably held its sessions there, as they are summoned to. meet the Governor and Senate at the court-house, which would bardly have been necessary had the sessions of the Assembly usually taken place in that building. Besides this, the Supreme Court was organized by Chief Justice Jay, at the court-house, on the 9th of September, and of course re- quired the court-room for its legitimate purpose. The Governor resided, during his stay in Kingston, at the house of his brother-in-law, Christopher Tappen, Esq., situated on the southwest corner of Wall and North Front Streets. It was immediately rebuilt after the fire, and of late has been occupied as a drug store by Peter E. Jansen.

At this house Governor Clinton received the address of the Legislature. The Legislature remained in session at Kingston until October 7th, when the Senate adjourned for the day, but in fact " without day," the journal of its next meeting, at Poughkeepsie, under the head of Jan. 5, 1778, containing the following :

¿ In The Indians; or, Narratives of Massacres and Depredations on the Frontier in Wawarsink and its Vicinity and Rondout, 1816, there are some statements not very flattering to the courage of Col. John Cantine.

! Johannes Snyder was a major in the militia in 1775, but was afterwards appointed to the command of one of the regiments. lle resided at Kingston, and was one of the superior officers present on the day of the British attack. He seems to have been a magistrate and trustee of the corporation. The present residence of Jonathan 11. Hlasbronck, Esq .. on the southwest corner of Fair Street and Maiden Lane, opposite the "Constitution House," occupies the site of his house. 1 believe that none of his descendants remain at Kingston.

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History of Ulster County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers. Vol. I, Part 20

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894. cn Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 758

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894. cn
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 758