USA > New York > Orange County > Newburgh > Newburgh; her institutions, industries and leading citizens, historical, descriptive and biographical > Part 11
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It was here an attempt was made to capture Washington while he had his headquarters at New Windsor village. In this vale lived a man named Ettrick. The tide set up close to his dwelling in those days, and a boat could be launched and reach the Hudson in five minutes. This Ettrick professed to be a warm patriot, but those who knew him best looked on him with suspicion. This man and this spot were selected to effect Washington's capture. The plan pro- posed was to have a boat ready, and a party of Tories secreted in the wood near by when Washington should be invited to dinner. His daughter overheard a conversation that exposed this plot, and in- formed Washington of her suspicions, and begged him not to accept the invitation of her father to dinner. The dinner hour was to be late, so that it would be dark before the meal was over. Then the seizure was to be effected, and the captive borne off to the bosom
of the Hudson. The boat, manned by strong rowers, would easily have reached the English vessels below West Point before Washing- ton would be missed. Instead of declining the invitation, he accepted it, but in the mean time ordered a detachment of his life guard to march to the place just at evening, and present themselves at the door. While Ettrick was engaged in conversation with his distin- guished guest, he heard their footsteps and the low command of their leader, and supposing them to be the detachment of Tories, he rose and laying his hand on Washington's shoulder, said:
" I believe, General, you are my prisoner."
" I believe not, sir, but you are mine," was the reply, as the life guard closed around him.
He was immediately marched off and locked up.
A mile below the vale we pass through the ancient village of New Windsor, a little collection of honses on the river-shore. The place is now given over to brick-making, but before and during the Revo- lution it was an important trading village. Its importance then exceeded Newburgh's, and it was predicted it would become the chief city of the central-Hudson valley. A large town was mapped ont, and the work of the projectors may be traced in the few remain- ing streets, but it has its principal existence in old maps ofrecord. In this little hamlet General James Clinton lived after his marriage, and here his son De Witt was cradled. Subsequently James moved to his
VALE OF AVOCA.
father's homestead in Little Britain. On the brow of the hill, on the east side of the road, stood the old Ellison house, celebrated as Washington's Headquarters at New Windsor. Washington came to this place in 1779, and again in 1780, remaining till the Summer of 1781. When the British expedition passed up the river in 1777 treasure was buried in the soil. On November 12, 1869, Silas Corwin, while digging in his brick-yard, near the site of the headquarters, unearthed a Mexican water-jng, which was placed with the month downward resting on a flat stone. It contained 650 Spanish and Mexican silver dollars, which were bright and clean. The treasure was probably buried by someone who died without revealing his secret.
A mile below New Windsor village is Plum Point, a wooded promontory at the month of the Moodna approached over a natural causeway. On Plum Point in the early part of the war for independ- ence was erected a battery of fourteen guns, designed to assist in maintaining obstructions to the navigation of the river which, at this
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point, consisted of a chevaux-de-frise stretching across to Pollopel's Island. It was known in official orders as Captain Machin's battery. Outlines of its embrasures are still visible. In the vicinity of the battery are the remains of the cellar of the first dwelling-house in this county. Its owner was Colonel Patrick MacGregorie, a Scotch gentleman of fortune, who was chosen leader of a company of perse- cuted Presbyterians, who emigrated from Scotland and settled on this beautiful spot. MacGregorie's brother-in-law, David Toshack, who claimed the title of " Laird of Minivard," opened a store on the south side of the creek and traded with the Indians. MacGregorie was appointed muster-general of the militia, and held other official trusts under the government. He was killed in the Leisler revolution in New York in 1691. Toshack was buried here, as were other members of the original company, and ultimately the little settlement was lost in the shadows of history. All that remains to mark it is this old excavation.
The northern side of Plum Point is washed by the Moodna (or Murderer's Creek), a fine clear stream that comes down from the hill country of Orange County The glen where we cross it is one of
continent, as being the supposed bed of a lake, the southern bound- ary of which was the Highlands, through which the mass of waters, having burst, found their way to the ocean, leaving the bed of the lake dry and forming the present channel of the river. Besides the proofs which the man of science finds in the formation of this valley -the various deposits, the erratic, rounded boulders scattered over the plain like huge marbles cast in sport from a giant hand-the ter- races of the river banks-the chain of mountains bearing witness to a sudden convulsion-all serve to convince you that you are looking upon a dry bed of a lake of noble dimensions.
the most picturesque places hereabouts. It, too, has its le- gends, but space for- bids us telling the story of the sacrifice of the noble Indian Naoman and the massacre of the Stacey family. One of the tributaries of the Moodna is a brook that rushes from the glen at Idlewild, once the home of Nathaniel Parker Willis. In full view on the brow of the glen, two hundred feet above us, is his cottage. The whole acclivity is covered with the primeval wood. In this deep glen the brook flows in pic- turesque rapids and cascades over and among rugged rocks and overhanging trees and shrubbery, with a rustic footbridge, the solitary testimony that man has ever penetrated this wild retreat.
We are now on the skirts of Cornwall, where painters come for landscapes, professional men for exercise and inspiriting intercourse with nature, and youth for schooling amid pure and ennobling scenery. There are many summer hotels and boarding houses and fine man- sions. Our road would take us up the side of Storm King if we would go and view the whole of Highland Terrace at our feet. Its summit affords a view of a landscape at once one of the grandest and most beautiful that can be found in the Union. Rising as it does abruptly from the plain, the spectator gazing from this height is placed as it were upon a boundary, a frame of mountains extending quite round the picture. In this lies the Hudson, swollen into a lovely expanse of bay, and on either side the fine, cultivated lands of the rich old river counties -the clustered villages, the neat farm- houses and the elegant villas gleaming through the foliage that sur- round them. The soft green of the meadows, the golden hue of the grain fields, and the darker tints of the forests, the sparkling lustre of the river and the two small lakes west of Newburgh, which shine like sheets of silver-all these form a picture such as we may suppose greeted the eyes of Moses when he looked down upon the promised land. The valley is also interesting to those who are fond of studying the wonderful revolutions that have taken place on the face of our
M-N-Co
THE MOODNA.
Our road would also take us over Crow Nest's weird mountain, through a labyrinth of knolls, past small mountain farms iulanded among irreclaimable rocks, among them some contrived by hermits for inextricable privacy. A scion of a proud family after leaving col- lege expended a small competency in a farm on the ridge. After building his cottage he sought out a beautiful and poor girl, wholly uneducated, married her, and commenced cultivating a virgin mind and a virgin farm, both with success. His wife grew a lady of un- common dignity and intelligence, and while they passed their even- ings with books, their farm and dairy were models by day- light. Here you pass through the fairy scenes of the Culprit Fay's romance of love and its trials, and coming out on a high promontory, the Hudson, long hidden, bursts into view again; and West Point nestles at your feet, framed in the grandest witcheries of nature unrestrained.
Let us go back to the Moodna, where-
" The name of La Fayette has lent A fame to yon- der valley."
A little way up stands the building known as his headquarters. After its occupation by La Fayette it suffered very little change for years, the old stairways and quaintly-carved mantels being retained. Now tenantless, it is falling into ruins. The vault in the cellar, wherein it is said the money obtained under "the Dutch loan" was deposited, is still in good condition. The valley in which it is situated has an Ar- cadian quiet and a rare picturesqueness from the ancient pines. It has a history, too, from other causes than its association with the name of La Fayette. Just beyond the headquarters, at the foot of Forge Hill, Deacon Brewster, a Puritan, had a forge, with four fires and an anchory. The ore used was from the Forest of Dean mines. Here the chain which Peter Townsend forged at the Sterling Iron Works was partly put together. Grass-grown mounds cover the ruins of the old works.
Leaving the valley of the Moodna, we ascend Forge Hill to the tablelands of New Windsor, and ou the old Continental road come to a picturesque old stone and frame house known as the headquar- ters of Generals Knox and Gates. The frame portion was erected by Colonel Thomas Ellison, in 1734, for his son Johu. The stone portion was built in 1754, William Bull being the builder. Generals Knox aud Greene and Colonels Biddle and Wadsworth occupied three rooms in this house during five weeks in June and July, 1779; General Knox occupied three rooms as military quarters ten weeks in the fall of the same year; also, from the 20th of November, 1780, to
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the 4th of July, 1781, two rooms as military quarters ; and from May, 1782. to September, one room, making fourteen weeks. General Knox was Washington's chief of artillery. Altogether his residence here covered a period of over one year. The building was subse- quently occupied by General Gates-December, 1782, to April, 1783.
RESIDENCE AND BARNS OF FRANCIS LYNCH-New Windsor.
Two wide halls extend through the house, one in the main or stone portion, and one in the frame part, or wing. In the latter the ceilings are only seven feet high, and show the heavy oaken beams. In the dining-room, which is in the main part of the house, the walls are panelled in oak, the handiwork of William Bull. In the halls and in all the rooms are open fire-places, whose woodwork reaches to the ceiling. In the old days some of the fire-places could accommodate logs six feet in length. Up stairs are numerous storerooms and chambers, and the quaintest of all quaint stairways to the attic-a mere square " wellliole," with angular steps on two corners. The rooms all through the house are fitted with deep, roomy closets and wide window seats. The windows have little panes of glass, most of which have remained unbroken since they were put in. Tradition affirms that on one occasion the brilliant Mrs. Knox gave an enter- tainment here at which Washington was present, and opened the dance with Maria Colden, who is said to have been the daughter of Cadwallader Colden, jr., of Coldenham ; that among the guests were Gitty Wynkoop and Sally Jansen, of Kingston, who were great belles in their day, and that a French officer who was present gallantly in- scribed with his diamond ring the names of the trio on one of the small window panes in the sash of the principal room. The glass with the graven names remained in the sash to attest the truth of the story for over one hundred years, and until recently removed to insure its continued preservation during a period when the house was not occupied. The mansion stands a short distance south of the
New Windsor cantonment, on the Silver Stream that rises in the hills beyond Little Britain Square, and flows through the encampment ground into the Moodna. Here at the mansion it forms a lake, through which the highway crosses. From the lake the water was conducted to the wheel of one of the oldest flouring mills in the country, nestling under the trees on the . edge of a deep ravine.
Three hundred feet west of the house stands the first Methodist church in Orange County, erected by John Ellison in 1791. He occupied the first floor as a store, and the second floor was used for the religious services of the class he had started some years before. It was occupied by the pioneers of Methodism till 1807, when the edifice on the hill was erected.
Along the old grass-grown Continental road is the route to the last cantonment of the main army of the Revolution. It is the way along which came the recruits and supplies from New England to the army when in the Jerseys, and even when it was far down in Virginia with Cornwallis in its clutch. Washington and Knox and Gates and those other Generals have traversed it many times. As we drive along, the road begins to ascend a hill, a wide valley spreads out before ns, and Snake Hill looms up ahead. We are upon the campground. The Silver Stream ripples along on our left; the eminence on which the Temple stood is on the right.
"The eye of fancy backward looks Across a hundred years, And lo, on Snake Hill's southern slope The Temple reappears."
Leaving the campground we pass a stone house that has on its northern gable the date of its erection-1763. It was the house of Deacon Samuel Brewster, who had the forge and anchorage on the Moodna. Soon our road intersects the turnpike leading to Washing- ton Square, in the district known as Little Britain. This was once a district of such comparative importance that almost every place out- side of Newburgh was said to be in Little Britain. It was the home of the Clinton family-Charles, James, George and DeWitt-who had a controlling influence in the affairs of the State and nation, and whose statesmanship, bravery and patriotism are recorded in the his- tories and encyclopædias of the country. When Forts Montgomery and Clinton were carried by assault by the British, the American garrison, under Governor George Clinton, were dispersed through the mountains, and at length encamped at Washington Square, Gov- erner Clinton having his headquarters at the Falls house. At noon some soldiers brought to headquarters a man they had captured. The story is that the stranger asked to whose command the soldiers belonged, and they replied, "General Clinton's." As that was also the name of the British commander, the spy, for such he was, asked to be taken before him, expecting perhaps to be taken before Sir Henry Clinton. They took him to Mrs. Falls's house, where, instead of Sir Henry Clinton, he found Governor George Clinton. Immedi- ately the prisoner was observed to put something into his mouth and swallow it. Dr. Moses Higby, who lived two miles east, was hastily summoned. and gave an emetic that brought forth a silver bullet. "Out of his own mouth " the spy, Daniel Taylor, was convicted. Inside the hollow sphere was found a message from Sir Henry Clin- ton to General Burgoyne, at Saratoga, telling him of the fall of Forts Montgomery and Clinton, and that there was nothing between them but Gates. This was the message for which Burgoyne long waited. Hurrying on the march to the defence of Kingston, Clinton took the spy along, and hung him at Hurley, almost in sight of the burning town of Kingston.
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Turning toward Newburgh again, we pass other historic land- marks, among them the home of Dr. Higby, whose name will be ever associated with the story of the Silver Bullet; and the residence of
"ALDENDELL"-THE RESIDENCE OF JAMES M. WENTZ-Grand Avenue.
Robert Boyd, the Revolutionary gun-maker, whose factory stood on Qnassaick Creek.
Quassaick Avenne is another pretty drive. Starting from the great stone bridge over the Quassaick, it is one of the most fashionable residence suburbs-level, smooth and shaded. We pass handsome gateways, showing the way by winding roads to aristocratic residences partly hidden by stately trees, and see evidences of the highest art in landscape gardening. The avenue leads straight to Woodlawn Cemetery, two miles down, a pretty place, where some of the Clintons are buried, and where roads branch off right and left, the main highway continuing on through the townships of Cornwall and Blooming Grove, pass- ing through the pretty villages of Vails Gate, Salisbury Mills and Washingtonville. Branches of the Erie Railroad also run in this direction, con- necting Newburgh with the main line, both at Greycourt and near Turners. Along these roads are, besides some of the villages we have already named, Mountainville, Central Valley, Highland Mills and Craigville, all of which contribute to Newburgh's commerce.
Westward and northwestward extend other highways that in the olden days freighted the commerce of a large section of country to the Hudson River at Newburgh. The Newburgh and Cochecton Turnpike, built at the beginning of the century extends from the Hudson to the Delaware through many villages. Along it are many his- toric places, notably Coldenham, the home of the Colden family, and Montgomery village. The South Plank Road runs westerly to Orange Lake, Walden, Pine Bush and to Ellenville on the Dela- ware & Hudson Canal. Orange Lake is a beautiful sheet of water covering 400 acres. It is fed by internal springs and small streams,
and its outlet is Quassaick Creek. There is excellent fishing in its waters and shooting on its shores. There is a trotting track here, and Summer boarding houses. The Orange Lake Club, of Newburgh, have a clubhouse, where they have sports both summer and winter.
The historical fact connected with the lake is, that shortly after the war there was a coinage mill or mint here, built on the outlet. It was erected by Captain Machin, first for a grist mill. In 1787 he formed a partnership with several New York men for the purpose of coining money, and the firm was afterward incorporated with a similar com- pany chartered by the State of Vermont. Copper was coined into money, Vermont money solely. The building was of wood 30x40 feet and two stories high. The copper was obtained by melting cannon, leaving the zinc in the alloy. A little silver was coined also. The workmen sometimes wore masks to create a terror in the neighbor- hood. It is said that the first coin bearing the motto " E Pluribus Unum " was made at this mill. The enterprise was abandoned in 1790 on the adoption of the Constitution. During the war Captain Machin superintended the placing of ob- structions in the Hudson. He settled in Newburgh at the close of the war, but subsequently removed to Schoharie County, where he died in 1816.
Walden is a busy village on the Wallkill in the midst of a dairying country. A fall of forty feet in the river affords water power. The little town lies embosomed in evergreens on both sides of the river. The New York and the Walden Knife Companies' works are here, as well as engine works and other helpful industries.
The North Plank Road is the route to the northwest, through various villages and districts. There are many other roads that might be named to show the facilities for reach-
RESIDENCE OF MUNSON G. MUIR-Balmville.
ing Newburgh by wagon, and the wide extent of the contributing district.
A VISIT FROM LA FAYETTE.
UESDAY evening, September 13, 1824, the beacon fires were blazing on the mountain tops, proclaiming that the Marquis de La Fayette would arrive in the village on the morrow. The Vesuvian appearance of these fires, reflected from shore to shore in the still waters of the Hudson in two long, trembling columns, was both grand and beautiful in the extreme, says a news- paper of the period. The Marquis had received a brilliant reception in New York, and came up the river on the chartered steamboat James Kent. In Newburgh elaborate preparation had been made. Two lofty arches, gaily decorated with green branches and flow- ers, spanned Water Street. The one near the store of Messrs. Reeve & Falls bore these inscriptions on opposite sides:
Hail! La Fayette, Son of Liberty, Hail! Welcome once more to the land of the free, Where remembrance of thee and thy deeds will prevail, And thy name with Washington's hallowed be.
Hail to the Nation's Guest! The veteran hero's welcome here, Where Washington dismissed His soldiers from their bright career.
On the other arch was this greeting: " La Fayette and Liberty! Welcome, Illustrious Chief!"
In Colden Street an arch displayed this sentiment, an utterance of La Fayette shortly after the close of the Revolution: "May this great monument raised to Liberty be an encour- agement to the oppress- ed and a warning to the oppressor."
In Smith Street an arch, equal in tasteful construction to any of the others, bore beneath a banner the words: " Our Friend and Hero, La Fayette." There were other arches and profuse decorations.
The Long Room in the Orange Hotel had been beautifully or namented for the occupation of the General, and he was pleased to remark that its appearance exceeded in elegance any other that he had entered in Amer- ica. At an early hour on Wednesday morning thousands of people were hastening to the village from the adjacent towns, and at three o'clock in the afternoon they were surg- ing through the streets and congregating on the wharves. Four companies of cavalry under the command of Colonel Charles C. Brodhead were conspicnous; and besides the three infantry com- panies of the village, led by Captain Myer and Lieutenants
Smith and Carpenter, there was one from Fishkill Landing under Captain Stevens, and another from Washingtonville commanded by Captain Wyatt. It was a great disappointment that the late hour of the General's arrival prevented the military display with which as a soldier, he would have been gratified. But the steam- boat which conveyed him from New York ran aground, and her progress was prevented for three hours, so that it was near seven in the evening when she arrived at Reeve & Falls's dock.
The troops were drawn up ready to receive him, and his landing was announced by a national salute from a pair of six-pounders. He was welcomed by the committee of arrangements, and presented to Major-General Smith and snit and to Colonel J. W. Brown and the officers in command of the cavalry and infantry. La Fayette being seated in a carriage, the procession moved through Colden, First and Smith Streets to the Orange Hotel, the houses being illuminated and all the bells ringing merrily. At the door he was received by the chairman of the committee and escorted to the Long Room, where he was presented to the Corporation of the village and addressed by President Francis Crawford, who said in part:
" Although, Sir, at this place you will not find Washington and your former companions in arms, you will meet an ardent people who love you. Although you will not find (in our vicinity), those soldiers whose enthusiastic love of Liberty led them to encounter every danger without the hope of reward, you will meet a small remnant of that army, who, forgetting their age and wounds, have traveled to a distance from their homes to welcome the arrival of their old com- mander. And you will meet the children of those who boasted when living that they had fought by your side in Carolina, at Brandywine, at Yorktown, and were fed and clothed at your expense when languish- ing with disease or sink- ing under the severity of a rigorous climate."
To which La Fayette replied in substance that he returned to the corpo- ration and the inhabitants of the Village of New- burgh his sincere thanks for the kind reception he met with from them, and for the remembrance of his former services; that he regretted extremely that he could not have arrived at an earlier hour; that it would have given him the greatest pleasure to have visited the house so long tenanted by the great Washington, and the ground where the American army had en- camped; that he felt the greatest satisfaction at the growth of our village and the increase of its population, and the prosperity and happi- ness of our country in general.
RESIDENCE OF J. ABNER HARPER-New Windsor.
General La Fayette was then introduced to a great number of ladies and gentlemen in attendance, and as soon as an opportunity offered
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Johannes Miller, Esq., president of the Agricultural Society of the County of Orange, presented him a diploma of that society, with an address, to which the General made a short reply.
the ladies and affectionately took the hands of all. On his re- turning he expressed to one of the committee his great happi- ness in this short visit, and that there were "many beautiful ladies in Newburgh." After 12 o'clock he sat down to supper with about one hun- dred gentlemen, and as he was about to arise, Mr. Hunn, one of the gentlemen of the reception committee, addressed him in behalf of the Revolutionary inhabitants of this vicinity. He said in part:
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