USA > New York > Dutchess County > The history of Dutchess County, New York > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
COMPANY B-Stephen Simmons, killed at Peach Tree Creek, Ga., July 20, 1864. Folsom Richardson, died of wounds, Cumberland Hospital, Nashville, Tenn., Au- gust 8, 1864. Wounded at Resaca, Ga., June 15, 1864. James M. Chambers, wound- ed before Atlanta, Ga., August 2, 1864. Died in hospital, Jeffersonville, Ind., December 28, 1864. William J. Wallin, killed on skirmish line near Averasboro, N. C., March 17, 1865.
COMPANY C-Tallmage Wood, wounded at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. Died of wounds, July 14, 1863, at Baltimore, Md. George Lovelace, killed by Guerillas between Mulberry and Tullahoma, Tenn., February 11, 1864. Henry W. Story, killed in action at Dallas, Ga., May 25, 1864. William A. Palmatier, killed in action at Savannah, Ga., December 20, 1864.
198
THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
COMPANY D-Daniel Glancey, wounded in action, June 16, 1864. Died at Pine Knob, Ga., June 17, 1864. James Todd, wounded in action, June 22, 1864, at Culp's Farm, Ga. Died at Nashville, Tenn., July 26, 1864.
COMPANY E-Judd Murphy, killed at Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863. James Elliott, killed in action at Dallas, Ga., May 25, 1864. Samuel Myers, killed in action at Dallas, Ga., May 25, 1864. Isaac I. Blauvelt, wounded in action May 25, 1864. Died May 27, 1864, at Dallas Ga. John Sweetman, wounded in action at Culp's Farm, Ga., June 22, 1864. Died at Chattanooga, Tenn., July 3, 1864. James E. Davidson, wounded in action at Culp's Farm, Ga., June 22, 1864. Died at Chattanooga, Tenn., July 10, 1864. Bernard Connolly, killed in action at Peach Tree Creek, Ga., July 20, 1864.
COMPANY F-John E. Odell, killed by guerillas between Mulberry and Tulla- homa, Tenn., February 11, 1864. Isaac Smith, wounded at Dallas, Ga., May 25, 1864. Died at Peach Tree Creek, Ga., June 4, 1864. Henry Sigler, killed on picket near Marietta, Ga., June 16, 1864. Cornelius G. Sparks, killed in action at Golgotba, Ga., June 16, 1864. Nathan C. Hedden, wounded in action before Atlanta, Ga., July 20, 1864. Died at Cumberland Hospital, Tenn., September 2, 1864. John E. Pultz, wounded in action at Peach Tree Creek, Ga., July 20, 1864. Died September 20, 1864. John Simon, wounded in action at Culp's Farm, Ga., June 22, 1864. Died at Chattanooga Hospital, July 9, 1864.
COMPANY G-Barnard C. Burnett, killed at Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863. Thomas Burnett, wounded in action, July 20, 1864, at Peach Tree Creek and died July 30, 1864, near Atlanta. James Horton, wounded in action at Peach Tree Creek, Ga., July 20, 1864. Died August 9, 1864. Thomas W. Wright, wounded in action in Resaca, Ga., May 15, 1864. Died at Atlanta Hospital, October 22, 1864. Benj. A. Harp, wounded in action at Resaca, Ga., May 15, 1864. Died Septem- ber 7, 1864.
COMPANY H-John Grad, killed in action at Dallas, Ga., May 25, 1864. Noah Wixon, killed in action near Savannah, Ga., December 20, 1864.
COMPANY I-Henry Barnes, wounded at Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863. Died July 4, 1863. Charles LeClaire, killed at Dallas, Ga., May 25, 1864. William R. Phelps, killed in action at Golgotha, Ga., June 16, 1864. Henry Dykeman, wounded at Peach Tree Creek, Ga., July 20, 1864. Died at Chattanooga Hospital, Septem- ber 13, 1864. First Lieutenant David B. Sleight, killed in action at Averasboro, N. C., March 16, 1865.
COMPANY K-Richard Hyde, wounded in action in front of Atlanta, Ga., July 23, 1864. Died July 25, 1864.
199
POUGHKEEPSIE.
CHAPTER XV. TOWN AND CITY OF POUGHKEEPSIE.
BY EDMUND PLATT. AUTHOR'S NOTE.
A few words in regard to the arrangement of this chapter on Pough- keepsie are perhaps necessary. The chief events which go to make up the history of the town, village and city of Poughkeepsie are car- ried down chronologically from the earliest settlements to very nearly the present time. Following this comes the history of the churches, of the schools, of the manufacturing and other industries, of the banks and financial institutions, of the "newspapers, politics and public men," each under its own heading, with something about the development of each institution from its beginnings to the present. The institutions which are thus treated under separate headings are not referred to in the main story, except where something in their development was of great importance in the history of the town or city. The military history of the County of Dutchess is to be found in chapters by itself, elsewhere in this book, and therefore I have made but brief references to the enlistments of men or to the regiments that served either in the Revolution or in the Civil War. As the bench and bar are also given a separate chapter, I have said no more than is necessary about the lawyers. In the history of the churches only brief reference is made to the Catholics because a separate chapter is also devoted to them. The short history of Poughkeepsie contained in this volume is not a mere synopsis of my History of Poughkeepsie. Certain problems which could not be solved at the time that book was written have been re-examined from the records, some of them have been solved and con- siderable new matter has been obtained.
March, 1909.
EDMUND PLATT.
200
THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
TOWN OF POUGHKEEPSIE.
T HE towns of Poughkeepsie, Fishkill and Rhinebeck are the three oldest political divisions of the County of Dutchess, dating back at least to 1717, as the first book of the Super- visors and Assessors shows, though the division does not seem to have been definitely authorized by colonial law until June 24, 1719. That act refers in its first clause to a previous act of the "Twelfth year of the reign of the late Queen Anne," evidently the act of October 23, 1713, directing "the freeholders and inhabitants in the respective precincts thereof to assemble and meet at the most convenient place" to elect a supervisor, treasurer, two assessors and two collectors. Probably when these officers had been elected they made the first division of the county themselves for convenience, calling the sections wards. The record shows that the middle ward was called "Pockep- sing" as early as 1718 and the lower ward Fishkill, while the northern a little later came to be called Kipsburg. In the act of 1719 the word "ward" is not used, but they are called merely divisions, and the mid- dle division was given practically the same boundaries along the river as the present town of Poughkeepsie, namely, from Wappingers Creek to Esopus Island. The next division into a greater number of towns or precincts was made in 1737, when the Poughkeepsie precinct had a small slice taken off its northern end and was given a definite east- ern boundary. It included "All the lands to the northwest of Wap- pingers Kill, or Creek, from the mouth thereof and up along the said kill or creek and Hudson's River until it meets the patent granted to Heathcote and Company, called the Lower Nine Partners." The creation of the towns of Clinton and of Hyde Park made only a slight change in this northern boundary, for the Lower Nine Partners Pat- ent extended to the Wareskeechen, the stream which crosses the Post Road this side of Teller Hill, and the present boundary is only a mile or so further south.
The name Poughkeepsie dates far back of definite political divisions. It is first found in an Indian deed, dated May 5, 1683, still on file in the Fort Orange records at Albany, granting to Pieter Lansingh and Jan Smeedes each a farm and to the latter "also a waterfall near the bank of the river to build a mill thereon. The waterfall is called Pooghkepesingh and the land Minnisingh, situate on the east side of
201
POUGHKEEPSIE.
the river." This word "Pooghkepesingh," according to authorities on Indian nomenclature, means "where the water breaks through or falls over." In this deed it plainly refers to the fall at the mouth of the Fall Kill. The first grant of land in the town of Poughkeepsie is dated October 24, 1686, and refers to an Indian deed dated one year earlier. This was made to Robert Sanders and Myndert Har- mans. It contains no mention of Poughkeepsie, though the land is called Minnisink, but in 1697 Sanders and Harmans conveyed to Bal- tus VanKleeck a tract of land called by the Indians "Mennisink and Poghkepesing." This appears to be the last use of the word "Minni- sink" in local records, but Poughkeepsie, with a great variety of spell- ings, soon came into general use to describe the neighborhood.
Just who the very first white settler in the limits of the town of Poughkeepsie was remains unknown, but the first deed dated June 15, 1680, was of land between the mouth of Wappingers Creek and the Caspar Kill, granted by five Indians to Arnout Cornelissen Viele, a well-known interpreter of Indian languages. As a general thing some one was usually already living, camping or squatting in a neighbor- hood for which the warrant of a title to land was sought, and prob- ably Viele or someone else was living near the Caspar Kill at that time. Two years later, in 1682, there is record of a "bond and mort- gage given by a Highland Indian, Tapias, to Laurence van Ale and Gerrit Lansing, secured by his land, situate upon Hudson's River on the east side, nearly opposite Danskammer, * * * where Arnout Cornelissen's land ends." This gives strong ground for the suppo- sition that several families had been living near the mouth of the Wap- pingers for some time. The land granted to Viele soon afterwards came into the possession of Pieter Lansing, or Lassing, and some of his descendants lived there for many years. In fact, we may say that some of them are still living there, for the Lawsons, of New Ham- burg, are undoubtedly the same family, as Lauson was one of the early variations of the spelling of the name.
With the granting of the Sanders-Harmans patent the site of the City of Poughkeepsie began to acquire settlers enough to determine the location of a center or hamlet. By 1697 there were at least six families here. The first settler, who is merely referred to in a deed as "Sovryn the Baker," was on the ground as early as 1686, and the others were Myndert Harmans, the patentee, Balthazer Barnse, Hen-
202
THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
drick Ostrom, Simon Scoute and Baltus VanKleeck. These with oth- ers who came soon afterwards formed a small Dutch village com- munity. Their deeds from the patentees included the right to cut wood in'the forests and the right to pasturage in common lands. A saw mill may have been built by Jan Smeedes at the Pooghkepesingh waterfall as early as 1683, when he obtained his deed from the Indians, though no further record of Smeedes has been found. A mill, at any rate, had been built there by 1699, for it is mentioned in a deed from Col. Peter Schuyler, the 'second patentee, to Sanders and Harmans. This deed conveyed land between the Rust Plaest, the stream that flows through the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery, and the Fall Kill, and was probably given to straighten titles and make more definite boundaries between the two patents. Schuyler's patent, granted in 1688, con- veyed land "Bounded on the north by the lands of Robert Sanders and Myndert Harmense," and "on the south by a certain creek that runs into Hudson's River on the north side of a certain house now in the possession and occupation of one Pieter the Brewer." The "certain creek" was the Caspar Kill and Peter the Brewer was undoubtedly the Peter Lansing above referred to. Schuyler's land included, therefore, almost the whole town of Poughkeepsie south of the city limits.
The settlement of the town proceeded slowly. There was good lands along the streams and a comparatively level tableland stretching north and south for some distance in the neighborhood of the present city limits. Probably some of the land along the Fall Kill as well as along the Wappingers and the Caspar Kill was natural meadow land, free from trees, only occasionally flooded and very fertile. By 1703, when the first Post Road act was passed, settlements in the County of Dutchess had not yet warranted the Legislature in requiring the in- habitants to "clear or maintain any other path or highway than for horse and man only," but by 1712 there was reference in a deed to "the waggon path leading to Pokepsink," and the highway law of 1713 provided that "If the commissioners for the County of Orange and Dutchess County see cause to have any roads laid out for a waggon road, the inhabitants of said counties shall be hereby obliged to clear the same." This act named Barent VanKleeck, Jacob Vos- burg and Johannes Busch commissioners for Dutchess.
1. The Sanders-Harmans and the Schuyler grants covered nearly all of the town of Poughkeepsie, except a strip included in the Rombout patent along the Wappingers Kill. Later grants were made but declared fraudulent.
THE VAN KLEECK HOUSE, POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. BUILT 1702. DEMOLISHED 1836.
203
POUGHKEEPSIE.
It is impossible to tell where the original line of the Post Road, or King's Road, was, but in Poughkeepsie it must have been about where it is now by 1716, when the first church, the Dutch Church, was or- ganized, for the land then conveyed by Jacobus Van den Bogert to the trustees of the church is still owned by the church and was de- scribed by the deed, December 26, 1716, as "butted and boundett, Vz., on the Nort side to the Rood that runs to the Eastward to the fore said Captain Barent VanKleeck's and on the west along the Rood that runs to the Sout." That was clearly the southeast corner of Main and Market streets, and on the opposite side of the road that runs to the south the first court house was built by 1720. The Legislature first made provision for the building of a county house and prison in Dutchess County by an act, July 21, 1715, but did not indicate where the building was to be located. A second act, passed May 27, 1717, provided for its location "at or near the most con- venient place at Poghkepse."
As a county seat, therefore, Poughkeepsie dates from May 27, 1717, and there is evidence that general county meetings previous to that time had usually been held here. A court house and a church and a blacksmith shop make a good nucleus for a village any- where, but Poughkeepsie grew with rather more than true Dutch de- liberation and it was not until about eighty years after the building of the first court house that the place had become large enough to necessitate incorporation as a village. It should be noted that, like Fishkill and Rhinebeck, Poughkeepsie made its early growth, not on the river bank, but on the King's Road, or Post Road. The river, of course, must have been the great highway to the outer world during most of the year, but the road was undoubtedly the chief avenue of intercourse between scattered settlements and was doubtless available also for longer horseback journeys. As early as June 30, 1717, a payment of six shillings is recorded "for carrying an express to Fish- kill for his Magesty's sarvis," and "To James Hussey for ye same Express as fare as Croten River." Evidently the road was in use all the way to New York, despite the statement in some histories that Lord Loudon opened it through the Highlands when he marched his troops northward during the French and Indian War.
There must have been some kind of a road to a landing place at the river and also a road leading to the eastward before 1716, but there
204
THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
is no indication in the early records as to how far it extended and no evidence of the appointment of an overseer or pathmaster for it for a considerable number of years. The first Book of the Supervisors and Assessors, bringing the records down to 1722, mentions only overseers of the King's Road, but in 1730 the Second Book of the Supervisors contains an account of an election for the middle ward of an assessor and a collector, Arrye Rosa and Richard Sackett, Jr., for Dover and pochquayeck, and also the election of Hendrick Neess "surveyor of ye road from Dover, and Arrye Cooll surveyor of ye road from Pochquayeck." It seems that these roads both ran to Poughkeepsie. The first mention I have found in the records of a road leading to the river is the 'following:
AND Whereas we the hereafter Named Commissioners of pooghkeepsing and the Neighborhood of Wassayck Called Dover at the Request of Many persons free- holders and Inhabitants of said County & Two Neighborhoods have on the fourth day of November 1736
Concluded & agreed that the Bridge where it Now Stands Erected over the Wappingers Creek is the most Convenient place for the passing and Repassing for Travelers; and the Road is to Contineu from Said Bridge as it Now Goes to a Swinging Gate of Mr. Franc Filkins Land Now in the Tenure of Mr. Johannes Lewis from thence Straight over the land of Mr. Moses De Graeff till it meets with the Road that Leads through the Land of Mr. Johannes Van Cleeck and so through the same Land as it Now Goes quite Down to the Landing at Pooghkeep- sinck as the said Road Now Leeds.
A considerable number of new roads were laid out after the pas- sage of an act in 1732 "for the better clearing and further laying out public high roads in Dutchess County," and in 1738 it is stated that the commissioners "have viewed a road that leads from Pokeepsinck Church to Mr. Johannes Van Kleeck's," etc., and found the same very inconvenient and proceeded to alter said road as follows: "From Po- keepsinck Church eastward along the fence now in the possession of Mr. Francis Filkins until the end of the Lane and so along to the street line of the west end of the Lane of Col. Barent Van Kleeck's land, and so along the line as the same now is to the end thereof by Hendrick Ostrom's, then along the road as is there used to the end of the fence of Myndert Van Den Bogart. * * * And we said commissioners hope this may be conformable and agreeable to law and that this road be the King's High way or road from said Church at Pokeepsinck until the Wappingers Creek by the bridge aforesaid and no other, and
205
POUGHKEEPSIE.
also that there be a publick high way from the said Church as the road now goes until Hudson's River at a place called the Call Rugh Landing." This mention in 1738 is the first mention I have seen of the Kaal Rock landing, which appears many times, however, in the later records of the precinct or town of Poughkeepsie. It is almost impossible to tell from the early surveys just where the old roads ran, but the road above mentioned was apparently the main road to the eastward from the Kaal Rock landing, passing by the Poughkeepsie Church (that is the Dutch Church) and so out across Wappingers Creek. The records of elections for the precinct of Poughkeepsie begin in 1742 and the first page mentions four roads, as follows :
Barent Lewis, overseer of ye road to ye northward.
Benjamin Van Keuren, do to ye southward.
John Tappen, do to ye eastward.
John Maxfield, do to ye northeast.
The next year the roads to the eastward and to the northeast come out and in their places are the "road to DuBois's," and "road to ye Nine Partners." In 1744 the last mentioned road becomes the "road to Filkintown," while the road to the eastward, or to DuBois's, becomes "from Lewis DuBois's to Callrugh," and a new road is mentioned "from Lassing's to Du Bois's mill." In 1745 the roads are simply, "Post Road North," "Post Road South," "Filkintown," "Simeon LeRoy," "Lewis Du Bois." Now where did Simeon LeRoy and Lewis DuBois live? In 1751 these roads are designated as "DuBois's Bridge," and "LeRoy's Bridge," while another is mentioned "from Perdon's to P. Lansing's." LeRoy's Bridge, sometimes called Simeon LeRoy's Bridge, comes all the way down the records to 1755, when a pathmaster is appointed for a road "from Callrugh to Simeon Le- Roy's Bridge," and in 1754 we find the following in the record: "It was voted that the men from Boudewyn Lacount's, himself included, to Johannes VanKleeck's, himself included, shall work upon the road leading from the Callrugh landing to Simeon LeRoy's Bridge, and likewise those living at Crary Fly." This road running from the river to Wappingers Creek is evidently the same one mentioned in the earlier 1738 record. 1Simeon LeRoy had purchased land on the east
1. Simeon LeRoy was a son of Frans, or Francois LeRoy, who came to Poughkeepsie as early as 1719. He was the ancestor of the LeRoy family in Dutchess County and is the only French Huguenot, so far as I know, who came to this neighborhood by way of Canada. He bought land in the neighborhood of Smith Street on the Fallkill.
206
THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
side of Wappingers Creek, about in the neighborhood later known as Titusville, not far from the time these road records began. The puzzling thing about the town of Poughkeepsie records is that they seem to indicate that Lewis DuBois lived in the same neighborhood and, in fact, we have maps showing that at a later period he did live on this side of the Creek opposite the site of Titusville. It is not easy to conclude, however, that DuBois's Bridge and LeRoy's Bridge were the same, because they occur together in the same records in 1751. Matthew, Mathys or Matthias DuBois bought a tract of some 1,300 acres of land on this side of the Wappingers, opposite Titus- ville, in 1730, and his descendants lived there for a long time. The county records show that a road was laid out "from Lassen's to Mathys Du Boys mill" in 1743, and this record also mentioned Lewis DuBois, which proves that he was living somewhere in the same neigh- borhood along the Wappingers. In 1771 the Matthew DuBois estate was settled by Peter DuBois, Edward Schoonmaker and Zephaniah Platt, who made a map of the property. This shows a bridge across the stream, just back of the house now owned by Hon. A. B. Gray, and it appears from this and subsequent maps that Mr. Gray's house was built certainly as far back as 1771 and was the mansion of the various owners of the property for many years. The 1place was called "Anne's Field" in the early days, but by 1791 had become "Greenvale," the name it still bears. The neighborhood was evidently a center of some importance, the main road to the eastward crossing the stream there, and another road passing on to the southeast, marked on the maps of 1791 as "the road to Fishkill." It is possible that there were as early as 1750 two bridges across Wappingers Creek in that neighborhood, one near Mr. Gray's house and the old Titusville mill and the other near or at the site of the present Red Oak Mills. If so, one of them was doubtless LeRoy's Bridge and the other Du- Bois's Bridge. The road laid out in 1743 and mentioned in the Poughkeepsie town records in 1744 as "from Lassing's to DuBois's mill" probably indicates the present Spackenkill Road, for it comes down in the records finally as "the road to Van Keuren's" and some- times as "the road to Anthony's," evidently referring to the neighbor-
1. This house and property belonged to several well known-men, Including James Des Brosses In 1771, Francis Ingram, Abraham Adriance (1813) and John R. Varick (1833).
207
POUGHKEEPSIE.
hood of the old 'Milton Ferry, where Captain Van Keuren and Theopilus Anthony lived before the Revolution. The ferry crossing the river there may have been established as early as 1750.
It should be stated that the road from Kaal Rock Landing past the Dutch Reformed Church and so on to Wappingers Creek and to the eastward did not follow the present Main street from the Post Road westward. Main street was not put through to the river until 1800. The road wound up the hill, crossing the lines of the present North Clover and Mill streets, reaching the Post Road to the north west- ward of the Dutch Church, then following Main street out to the neighborhood of Arlington, where it turned to the southward, following nearly the lines of the present Raymond avenue and winding around over the limestone ridge, called the Hornberg, and so on to Dubois's place and the bridge over the Wappingers. Additional evidence that this was the case is found in a statement in one of the surveys of this road where the "Fountaine Killitie" is mentioned. This was ap- parently the "spring brook" that flows through Vassar College Lake. The earliest road to the northeast apparently branched off from this road at Arlington and was probably the same as that now called the Back Road to Pleasant Valley. A little later, certainly before 1771, another road branched where the Manchester Road now leads off and went around into the Wappingers valley, crossing the stream at the Zephaniah Platt (now Frank DeGarmo) place. The bridge at this location may possibly have been one of the very early ones. It seems as if it should have been the LeRoy's bridge referred to above, but all the evidence I have found is to the contrary. The existence of several old stone houses on the road east of the Wapping- ers suggests that the bridge may possibly have been built before the present line of the turnpike across the flats on the west side of the stream. The short cut over the swamp and the brickyard hill was laid out by the Turnpike Company at the time of its organization in 1802, when the road to Pleasant Valley was taken over and much improved. This short cut is not shown in the town map made in 1798, nor is the Manchester road. The latter appears to have been put through about 1811.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.