USA > New York > Orange County > Newburgh > Newburgh; her institutions, industries and leading citizens, historical, descriptive and biographical > Part 6
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Many mills were built on the creeks in the vicinity-on Quassaick Creek, Tent Stone Meadow Creek and Fostertown Creek, among others. Hamlets grew up near these mills, and at some places there
1775) in the southern district of Ulster County, of which Jonathan Hasbrouck, of Newburgh, was Colonel. Two companies were organized for this regiment in Newburgh, the first commanded by Samuel Clark and the second by Arthur Smith. In December follow- ing a regiment of minute men was organized with Thomas Palmer, of Newburgh, as Colonel. In the Summer of 1776 the convention di- rected the general committee of the county to organize three companies (201 men) of rangers, to be employed " as scouting parties to range the woods " and prevent attacks by the Indians. Of one of the compa- nies Isaac Belknap, of Newburgh, was appointed captain. In addition to these regiments and companies, the committee of safety was constantly engaged in promoting enlistments. Even the aged were not exempt from duty, and "those who under ordinary circumstances would be exempts," were asked (in 1778) to form companies to repel invasions and suppress insurrections; and a company of that kind was formed, of which Samuel Edmonds was captain. Martin Weigand's
-
NEWBURGH-FROM THE RIVER NEAR FIFTH STREET.
was a smith's shop, aud, also, that Noah's ark of commerce, a country store. The population at Balmville became fully as large as that on the Glebe.
The results of all these years of pioneer labor were exhibited in many well cultivated farms, and in the substantial dwellings that had supplanted the rude log cabins. The lumber business of the town became important, and large quantities of ship-timber, planks and staves were forwarded to market, the public landing at North Street being almost exclusively used for this purpose. Shipyards were established, and Newburgh ships engaged in the Liverpool trade, smaller vessels running to points on the coast and to the West In- dies. In colonial days Newburgh was also a whaling town of some importance.
THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
Newburgh's historic record is indissolubly bound up with that of the great struggle for freedom from foreign dominion, and the city has within its limits relics and memories of those times when the terrors of the war tried men's souls to the uttermost, and when the village acquired a distinction that will cling as long as the nation shall endure. The Preciuct of Newburgh had its own com- mittee of safety, responsible at first to the general committee at the City of New York, and subsequently recognized by the provincial committee of safety, and invested with the control of the minute men and the duties of local administration. A regiment was formed (June,
tavern was the rendezvous for Colonel Hasbrouck's regiment "upon any proper alarm."
How frequently the militia of Newburgh was called out is shown by the following return made of the service of Colonel Hasbrouck's regiment :
Dec. 12, 1776. . Alarm and service at Ramapo
=
,100 .. 14
" 28, 1777. .
11
44
at Fort Montgomery . . 150
.200
44 .. 40
..
.. 12
Mar. 7, 44
44
44
.. 130
.. 90
4.
.. 8
Aug.
Oct.
at Fort Constitution. . 200 .. 10
44
Nov.
..
44
at Burning of Esopus. 460
.. 30
44
April, 1778 .. 44
4 4
:
at New Windsor. .. ... 120 .. 45
at West Point. .... ... 420
.. . 8
44
July,
=
at Fort Montgomery . . 460
.. 500
. . 300 men. . 27 days.
Jan. 7, 1777 ..
44
44
at Peekskill ... 250 .. 40
.. 8 46
A depot of stores, which was established in the precinct in 1777, was maintained until peace came, the people often being called upon to collect the stores needed by the army, and to transport them to other points; the place was made a general rendezvous for troops, and the billeting of soldiers on the inhabitants was of frequent occurrence. It is true that the precinct escaped direct devastation by the British ; even the vessels of the Crown did but little injury when they voyaged up the Hudson in the fall of 1777, but many of the men of the neighborhood were killed or taken prisoners in the gallant, though hopeless, defense of the forts in the Highlands.
24
NEWBURGH.
In those days Newburgh had but few opened streets, the principal one being the King's Highway, along which were scattered a few odd-looking brown houses, the old church, the parsonage and schoolhouse. Broad Street extended only a short distance below Grand. The road to the ferry ran across Jonathan Hasbrouck's farm and the Colden plot, from Hasbrouck's grist mill on Quassaick Creek, to near the corner of Colden and First Streets, and then circled around the hill to the river. There was a public dock there. When the army came the lower part of the Smith farm was occupied by store- houses and barracks for soldiers. (These building's were used after the war for business purposes.) The Colden road was then extended to where is now Third Street. After the extension of this road the ferry ran from a place immediately north of where Mailler's dock now is. The Government built a dock, in the early part of the war, at the foot of Third Street (and subsequently another at Fourth Street), and a road was laid out from the docks and army buildings diagonally up the hill to a junction with South Street, about opposite where is now the First Baptist Church. Water Street was not completely opened till the Newburgh and Sullivan turnpike was established.
There were seventeen houses in all on the Glebe (since known as "Old Town"), and four at Colden's Gore, the name given to the inter-
was killed. Except as prisoners, no British soldiers were seen in the vicinity afterward.
One who was a resident of the village during the war left on record the following : " The appearance of General Washington was familiar to me. He seemed different from anyone else. He was of a commanding form, and had a kind, calm and majestic countenance ; a splendid rider, and we boys reverenced him, and extended a due share of our respect to his horse and servant Will, a handsome black, somewhat in years. The General rode a bay horse, and his servant rode behind on a brown horse. Mrs. Washington was short and stout. I thought she was homely and could never have been a handsome woman. The Headquarters house had a post and rail fence around it, and an orchard on the west side ; a large barn and monstrous hay barracks stood southwest of the house. The Life Guards used to parade in the dooryard west of the house; they were a fine body of men, every one six feet and over in height."
The Charter of the Glebe was complied with down to 1793, the Protestant Episcopal Church having been recognized as the legal re- cipient of the benefits of the Glebe. Probably the succession of the Protestant Episcopal Church would have continued to the present time had not that church ceased to exist on the German patent.
CER
M N.IN.
NEWBURGH-FROM THE RIVER NEAR THIRD STREET.
section of Water and Colden Streets, one of these being Capt. Isaac Belknap's and another Alex. Colden's. At the south end of the King's Highway was the Hasbrouck house. James Smith had a residence in Smith Street, east side, near Second. Benjamin Smith, who became the owner of the Smith farm (lying between First and South Streets), lived in Liberty Street, corner of Campbell. The hillsides were cov- ered with orchards. A strip of land along the river from Barclay Street to North was called the Dismal Swamp, and was covered with a dense and unbroken thicket. Ship-building was an important industry before and after the war.
During the Revolution the fife and drum were heard almost con- stantly in the streets. When the British sailed up the river to burn Kingston, after the capture of the forts in the Highlands, October 6, 1777, Newburgh people hid their valuables in the woods. Almost all the male portion of the population had gone to the defense of the forts. The approach of the fleet was made known by the kindling of fires on the mountain tops. Here and there independent bodies of men assembled on the shore, and fired at the ships as they passed. Many shots were fired at the village, and the women and children hid in the cellars. On the 23d the ships passed down the river, and again fired on the village. One man on the ferryboat (a periagua)
From 1793 to 1815 there was no regular minister, and nothing but a temporary church organization.
The absence of a legal ecclesiastical beneficiary, and other reasons, led the inhabitants in 1803 to obtain a legislative enactment provid- ing that the income of the Glebe be divided between the Newburgh Academy and such other schools as then existed, or might thereafter exist, on the Glebe. In 1805 an effort was made in the courts to regain the land, but it failed.
Created and endowed by the English Government long before the conception of independence, or the establishment of our system of titles to lands, preserved inviolate by the laws of the colony and con- stitution of the State, the Glebe instituted an Academy which served this community nearly a century, and in 1886, by the consoli- dation of its capital and conversion of its leases, it paid nearly half of the cost of the new Academy building. In 1884 an act of the Legis- lature was passed authorizing the trustees, on certain payments being made, to commute the rents and release the property from further charge; and the original tract has all been released with the exception of a comparatively few lots.
An old gentleman, born in Newburgh before the Revolution, left the following reminiscence : " The old story of the seizure of the Palatine
25
NEWBURGH.
Church, and carrying off the bell, I heard repeated a great many years ago. It was always said it was Burger Meynders who was buried under the falling door during the fracas. ( Meynders then own- ed the Headquarters property, and I always understood he built the oldest part of the house . The church was used as a blacksmith-shop by Morgan Cole before it was fitted up as a schoolhouse. Once during the war soldiers stabled their horses in it. After the war Martin Weigand, who had a deep regard for the old church, suggest- ed that it be repaired. The project was agreed to by others, and the repairs were made. After that the Methodists, and preachers of other denominations, conducted services there."
" "Twas a low building reared by pious hands 'Midst the deep foliage of the darksome wood; Poor was its state, and many years had told Their passing seasons o'er its humble roof; Relentless time had grasped the lowly gate, And crumbling dust bespoke its fearful might.
The mouldering doorway and the falling walls, The creaking pulpit and its aged cloth, The glassless frames, the time-worn sacred book,
The worn-out seats, and the cold, forsaken aisle, Seemed in the dimness of the evening shade The fearful relics of departed years,
Untouched of earth and sacred made to Heaven."
LAYING OUT THE CITY.
Notwithstanding the hardships and sacrifices imposed on the people by the war, the growth of the town was rapid both during
Newburgh plot had been opened by Cadwallader Colden previous to 1730, and was located between First Street and what is now Broad- way (though the latter street was not opened till 1801). It was the first plot to bear the name of Newburgh.
Until 1790 the village was a disjointed settlement. The three township plots of which it was composed had no connection, except through Liberty Street and a few "cross-lot " roads. South, North, Nicoll, Clinton, Water, Montgomery and Grand (on the Glebe) existed mainly on paper; while High Street and the road described as running diagonally across the plot, were, (with the exception of Liberty Street) the only opened roads in the Town of Newburgh plot. None of the lateral streets intersected each other till 1790, when the road commissioners accepted the dedications that had been made, and took the task in hand of joining together the streets of the three distinct original divisions of the present city. An angle was unavoidably formed in Water Street at the junction of Colden, at High and Smith, and at Montgomery and Hasbrouck (now called Hudson Terrace), and the citizens thus have a perpetual memorial of the Township of Newburgh, the Township of Washington and the Glebe. South Street, the dividing line between the Glebe and the Township of Washington, was originally laid out from the river directly west to the west bounds of the patent, and was at first opened from Liberty Street to the river. West of Liberty Street its course was subsequently changed, by order of the trustees, because the western end, as originally laid out, "running through wet ground and over a high hill" was "impracticable," and it was agreed to
THE HIGHLANDS-FROM NEAR DOWNING PARK.
and immediately after that period. With the disbandment of the army the precinct received an increase of population, some of those who at last laid down the sword resuming civil pursuits here. There was also a considerable addition of families who had fled from New York City upon its capture by the British. Hitherto New Windsor (through the Ellisons) had mainly absorbed the commercial business of the district. In 1782 Benjamin Smith laid out in streets and lots that part of his farm lying east of Montgomery Street, and between First and South Streets. The streets were named Montgomery, Smith and Water, and First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and South. To this plot he gave the name of the TOWNSHIP OF WASH- INGTON, But it was never popularly known by that name, and if so the name is now lost and forgotten, and is only found on the original map and the few old deeds that continue to retain the record of its birth and death.
These lots were rapidly taken up, as well as the adjoining lots on the Glehe, and in the Township of Newburgh. The " Old Town " of
allow the road to follow the course now known as Gidney Avenue "from opposite Martin Weigand's to the northward of a piece of swamp land adjoining said high hills."
In 1790 the population of the town was 2,365. In 1797 the village had grown so large that it was considered advisable to organize a fire department, and for this purpose a law was passed by the Legislature directing the election of Trustees of the Fire Company of the Village of Newburgh. The limits of the village defined by this act included that portion of the original patent south of an east and west line running six rods north of the Academy, and east of Liberty Street.
Other events of the concluding years of the century were the erection of the Academy, the founding of the first Presbyterian church, the Methodist Episcopal classes in 1786, and the Associate Reformed in 1797. The first newspaper, the Newburgh Packet. was published in 1795. The Newburgh post-office was established in 1795.
26
NEWBURGH.
The village threw off the town title and was incorporated in 1800, being the third incorporated village in the State. Charles Clinton was the first president. The next year the Newburgh and Cochecton Turnpike Company was incorporated with a capital of $125,000. Both were measures largely influencing the prosperity of the place- the one giving local government, and the other, by opening a new route of travel to the west, brought a trade which had previously reached the Hudson at New Windsor. Up to that time all roads to Newburgh were of the character of cross roads.
The turnpike was of incalculable benefit to Newburgh, as it open- ed an avenue of trade extending many miles into the interior, and eventually by it the product of a vast region of country was brought here for shipment to New York. The effect was magical. New Windsor was speedily shorn of its supremacy and its merchants removed their business to Newburgh. Within the next few years the town made great strides in prosperity, and an unprecedented spirit of public and private enterprise was manifested. Other roads followed- the Newburgh and New Windsor in 1808, connecting at New Windsor
Newburgh's extensive trade with the interior of the State was due to its location on tide-water, and, consequently, its facilities for shipping. It was the first shipping point of consequence on the west bank of the river north of New York. The Highlands, Pali- sades and other mountain ranges were a natural barrier to easy access to the river south of Newburgh, and, as we have said before, Newburgh was the natural outlet for the trade of a vast section of country before the days of railroads and canals. The transporta- tion business was consequently the most important in the town. Docks and storehouses lined the water-front. The first dock was built about 1731 by the proprietors of the Town of Newburgh Plot, and was afterwards known as Colden's dock. It was near the foot of First Street. Colonel Jonathan Hasbrouck built a small dock and storehouse, afterwards known as the Old Red Storehouse, on his property just below the Headquarters, for the purpose of ship- ping grain and receiving flour. During the Revolution the Conti- nental Dock, at the foot of Third Street, was built for military pur- poses. North of it was an enclosure for cattle and a slaughter-house,
DUBOIS STREET-LOOKING SOUTH FROM FIRST STREET.
with the turnpike to Monroe; the Newburgh and Sullivan County in 1810, and the Newburgh and Plattekill in 1812. Water works were built, docks erected, and new freighting and passenger lines estab- lished. The Newburgh Bank commenced business, and many public and private improvements were made.
In 1810 the population of the town of Newburgh was 4,627, an increase of 1,369 in ten years, In 1814 the population of the village alone was 2,323.
As the new turnpikes were opened the trade of the village was extended in many directions, and a very considerable portion of the trade of the southern tier of counties of this State, and of northern New Jersey and Pennsylvania, found here its natural mart.
In 1819 the trade had spread as far west as Canandaigua, with which place Newburgh was connected by passenger coaches and freight wagons. In that year a company, that was aided largely by Newburgh capital, built on Cayuga Lake a steamboat, which con- nected the Newburgh stage lines with Ithaca, the whole journey be- ing made in two days. This line of travel was subsequently (in 1834), extended to Buffalo, and was the shortest and most expeditious route from the Hudson River to the Western country. From 1820 to 1830 the Newburgh Bank had a branch in Ithaca.
etc. During the year that peace was proclaimed another was built at the foot of Fourth Street, afterwards known as Oakley & Davis's, also a storehouse for provisions for the army. After the close of the war David Howell built a dock near the foot of Second Street. Then came Walsh's dock, now Mailler's, and then the dock of Jacob and Leonard Carpenter (now owned by The Homer Ramsdell Transporta- tion Company). John Anderson built a dock south of Third Street, and there were others. It would be impossible to locate the old docks precisely from present landmarks. The army buildings appear to have been the first storehouses. Many of the docks were west of what is now Front Street (which was opened in 1833), and the old storehouses were nearly on the present east line of Water Street. After the war Major Pettingale established what was called Pettin- gale's Landing, near the foot of North Street, which was then a good road. Large quantities of ship timber, staves and shingles were sent off from this landing.
Major Isaac Belknap sailed a sloop prior to the Revolution from Colden's Dock, and frequently made trips to the West Indies. Will- iam Harding, Richard Buckingham and Lewis Clark sailed sloops before the war. These vessels were frequently in the public service, and just before the British sailed up the river they were sent to
27
NEWBURGH.
Albany to carry troops to reinforce General Gates, and thus es- caped destruction by the British men-of-war. They were built at Albany, of red cedar, and after the Dutch model. During the Rev- olution the boating business was of course suspended, and though resumed at the close of the war, was not engaged in extensively till after 1790.
As early as 1798 there were four lines of sloops. Caleb Coffin sailed George Gardner's sloop on alternate Fridays. Daniel Smith and William Wilson, owners, Daniel Smith, master, sailed the sloop Morning Star from Daniel Smith's dock on alternate Fridays. John Anderson sailed the sloop Eliza on alternate Tuesdays, Derrick Ammerman sailed the sloop Ceres, owned by Hugh Walsh, from Hugh Walsh's dock. Until 1830 the business was continued by means of sloops. In 1830 Mr. Christopher Reeve purchased the steamer Baltimore, and a half interest was soon afterward sold to D. Crawford & Co., the steamer making alternate trips from Reeve's dock and from Crawford's. Benjamin Carpenter, not to be out-done, had built at Low Point the same year a steamboat called the William Young, which commenced its trips in September. Other freighters
when the streets leading to the docks were frequently blocked for hours with farmers' loaded wagons, coming in long processions to unload their contents on the wharves, and then to be re-laden with supplies for the household and farm.
But the completion of the Erie Canal, diverted most of this great trade through other channels, and on the night when the waters of Lake Erie mingled with those of the Atlantic in the harbor of New York, with beacon fires blazing on the headlands along the Hudson, Newburgh rolled up and laid away its map of the Southern Tier. Considerable travel by stage coach continued until the opening of railroads through the center of the State, and a large trade remained with the southeastern portion of this State, and neighboring portions of New Jersey and Pennsylvania; but the Delaware & Hudson Canal at length penetrated this region and cut off another source of wealth. Efforts were made to repair the loss thus sustained by the organiza- tion of a company to engage in whale fishing, and by endeavoring to secure the establishment here of a government navy-yard. The former enterprise, however, met with limited success, and the proposal to establish a navy-yard did not receive the favor of the
GRAND STREET-LOOKING SOUTH FROM THIRD STREET,
immediately built or purchased steamboats. Oakley & Davis put on their line (in 1832) the Providence, and D. Crawford & Co. (in 1833) built the Washington, and after purchasing Mr. Reeve's interest in the Baltimore, ran both boats. In 1835 the Baltimore was put on the Albany and Newburgh route. The Messrs. Reeve had in the mean- time supplied the place of the Baltimore with the steamer Legislator. The Washington was the best boat in the trade, and Mr. Carpenter built in 1835 the James Madison, a superior boat to the Washington; she was the first beam-engine steamer in the trade. During the same year Oakley & Davis changed the Providence for the Superior, and Mr. Thomas Powell, who had been in retirement for several years, now again entered the list of competitors and built the famous steamer Highlander. The Thomas Powell was the best steamboat built for the Newburgh trade. and was put on the route in 1846, leav- ing Newburgh in the morning, and returning in the evening. On the 16th of July of that year she made the trip from New York to New- burgh in two hours and forty minutes actual running time.
The number of firms and vessels engaged in the transportation business exhibits the magnitude of Newburgh's trade in those days,
Government. The construction of the Erie Railroad from Goshen to Piermont, and its subsequent extension in other directions, took away the last vestige of the ancient trade of Newburgh, and the old stage coaches and the long lines of farmers' wagons, with their stores of butter and pork, became but a memory.
But another change has come; a new era has dawned; the tidal wave of prosperity that swept over the village a hundred years ago has returned. The old turnpikes have been paralleled with railroads, stretching to us from every direction; and the river, too, gives com- munication with the Atlantic coast and all the world. Many manu- factories are springing up within our bounds, and the year 1891 finds us the most thriving city on the Hudson, with citizens full of the spirit of public enterprise, with public institutions comparatively un- equalled, and with apparently every factor and requisite to ensure its bright future as a manufacturing and commercial city of importance.
28
NEWBURGH.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
HEADQUARTERS OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY.
The Last Cantonment-Washington at New Windsor The Public Build-
ing-No King But God-Mutiny Quelled-The Cincinnati- Dissolution of the Army.
" Sacred is this mansion hoary; 'Neath the roof-tree years ago, Dwelt the father of our glory, He whose name appalled the foe , Greater honor Home nor hearth can never know."
V a commanding eminence on the west bank of the Hudson, overlooking the beautiful bay of Newburgh, and taking within its range all the grandeur of the water and mountain scenery for which the region is famed, there stands an ancient dwelling. It is a hal- lowed place, a casket of precious memories, an impres- sive orator.
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