USA > New York > Dutchess County > The history of Dutchess County, New York > Part 18
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1. The ferry at Milton was not only a very old one, but it was the last on the river to run a horseboat, the old boat remaining in service till about the time of the Civil War. See Appendix for history of this ferry by C. M. Woolsey, of Marlborough.
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
Neither the county, nor the town of Poughkeepsie, grew very much until about 1740, when there was a continuous immigration from the south, much of it from Long Island. In 1745 a new and more commo- dious court house was built and in 1756 the English population had so much increased as to call for the occasional services of a missionary of the Church of England. The river trade gradually increased in importance as the farms were cleared and settled and a storehouse was built about 1761 at the foot of Pine street, and a few years later at the foot of Union street. The last named street or road was laid out by the town authorities in 1767 on petition of John DeGraff and his son-in-law, James Winans. It was in part an old road then, how- ever, but is not mentioned as requiring the services of a pathmaster before the Revolution. There was doubtless also a very early road to the mill at the mouth of the Fall Kill. Pine street was for a long time known as Richard Davis's Road, or the road to Richard Davis's land- ing, and was apparently a private road until nearly the close of the century. The "Caulrugh" road was still the only one in the limits of the City of Poughkeepsie mentioned in the records and even that is not distinctly shown on the map made in 1770 by Will Cockburn. In that year there were some fifty or sixty houses in Poughkeepsie within the present city limits, twenty-five or thirty of which were on the main roads, not far from the center. A good deal of the land adjacent to these roads had already been divided into lots so small as to suggest that their occupants could not have been depending wholly upon farm- ing for their living. Though scarcely deserving the name of village in 1756, by 1776 the town had become one of some importance.
In colonial times the houses of this neighborhood belonging to peo- ple of wealth were many of them stone houses, not handsome but of great durability. Few of them, however, remain, only two in the City of Poughkeepsie- the house on Main street now known as the Gov. George Clinton House and probably one of the residences of Clinton while in Poughkeepsie, and the old Noxon House on the east side of Market street. The last mentioned has been remodeled at the present time with a brick front and does not look like an old house, but it probably dates from the neighborhood of 1741. Of the houses along the Post Road the only ones remaining in good preservation in the town of Poughkeepsie are the Davies House, opposite the Spackenkill Road, and the Abraham Fort House, about five miles below the city,
GEORGE M. HINE.
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POUGHKEEPSIE.
near the Caspar Kill. This house has been much altered and en- larged by the present owner. The old Judge Platt place, now occu- pied by Frank DeGarmo, near the Wappingers Creek above Man- chester, is perhaps more nearly than any of the other stone houses in the town in its original condition. Another house, probably older, is that occupied by A. B. Gray and referred to in the discussion of the roads leading to LeRoy's Bridge and DuBois's Bridge. The Theoph- ilus Anthony House, later the Gill House, on the river front at the mouth of the Spackenkill, is another notable house of colonial days.
DURING THE REVOLUTION.
The leading people of the town of Poughkeepsie were conservative and not inclined at first to take much part in the agitation over the stamp act and tea taxes that so greatly aroused the dwellers in some of the seaport cities. The agitators worked very systematically to stir up the country, sending letters far and wide, asking the people everywhere to call meetings, pass resolutions, appoint committees, etc. In response to a letter from Isaac Low, chairman of the committee of correspondence in New York City, a meeting was held in Pough- keepsie, August 10, 1774, a report of which has been handed down. The people decided not to comply with the request of Mr. Low to appoint a committee, but adopted resolutions stating that they "agree fully in opinion with the many respectable bodies who have already published their sentiments in declaring that the unlimited right claimed by the British Parliament, in which we neither are or can be repre- sented, of making laws of every kind to be binding on the colonies, particularly of imposing taxes, whatever may be the name or form under which they are attempted to be introduced, is contrary to the spirit of the British Constitution and consequently inconsistent with the liberty which we as British subjects have a right to claim." The only action this meeting would take in the matter, however, was to instruct its members of the General Assembly to urge the Legislature "to lay before his Majesty an humble Petition and Remonstrance, setting forth the state of our several grievances and praying his royal interposition for a repeal of the said Acts." The resolutions also cited that "In the opinion of this meeting they ought and are willing to bear and pay such part and proportion of the national expenses as their circumstances will admit of, in such manner and form as the General Assembly of this Province shall think proper."
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
This was the legal, orderly way to go to work to have grievances redressed, but the General Assembly of the Province of New York was not in sympathy with the revolutionary spirit of the times and noth- ing could be immediately expected from an appeal to it. Other meet- ings, perhaps held elsewhere in the county, did appoint correspon- dence committees and chose delegates to the Continental Congress at about this time. Certain leading Poughkeepsians, most of them mem- bers of the English Church (now Christ Church) refused to consider the acts of the First Continetal Congress binding and called them- selves "Friends of Constitutional Liberty." As the spirit of resent- ment against the mother country grew and as the revolutionary or- ganizations became more aggressive, these Friends of Constitutional Liberty were considerably harassed and a few were finally driven out of the county. They were strong enough in March, 1775, neverthe- less, with the aid of the Tory sheriff, "a judge of the inferior court, two of His Majesty's justices of the peace and a constable" to cut down a liberty pole erected near the house of John Bailey, two or three miles from Poughkeepsie. The Poughkeepsie precinct early in April refused to elect delegates to the Second Continental Congress, but only a few weeks later, when the news of the battles of Lexington and Con- cord reached here, the people became thoroughly aroused and the rep- resentatives sent to the Provincial Congress to meet in New York May 22, included Gilbert Livingston and Zephaniah Platt, of the Pough- keepsie precinct. This Provincial Congress promulgated the "Pledge of Association," which all citizens were asked to sign in support of the measures of the Continental Congress. There were 207 signers and eighty who refused to sign in this town or precinct. The latter included some of the most substantial people. Some forty or fifty of these adhered so strongly to the king that their personal property was confiscated and sold, probably after they had fled from their homes, and Bartholomew Crannell's farm, wholly within what is now a closely built up part of the City of Poughkeepsie, was also con- fiscated and sold. Crannell street perpetuates his name and is a little west of the center of his farm of 1021/2 acres. He entered the Brit- ish army and afterwards settled in Canada. Two of his daughters, however, married leaders of the Revolutionary party, Gilbert Liv- ingston and Peter Tappen, and broke with their father. The Eng- lish Church suspended services when the Declaration of Independence
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was promulgated and the rector, Rev. John Beardsley, entered the British service as chaplain of Beverly Robinson's regiment of Loyal Americans, the same regiment that Crannell had entered.
When the war was fairly under way Poughkeepsie became a center for the meeting of committees arranging for the defense of the Hud- son River, for furnishing provisions for the army and for recruiting service. Here were built the two frigates assigned to the State of New York for the American navy, and here was forged much of the great iron chain stretched across the River from Fort Montgomery, at the lower entrance of the Highlands. The frigates were launched in the autumn of 1776, but never got to sea, for both had been sent to the defense of Fort Montgomery and they were destroyed during the raid of Vaughn and Wallace, in October, 1777. It may be well to repeat here that the chain stretched across the river at West Point at a later period was not made at Poughkeepsie but in Orange County.
Poughkeepsie had its only actual taste of war at the time of Vaughn's raid. The British sent about thirty ships up the river, most of them gunboats, but some transports filled with troops. As they passed the town they fired a few shots, one of which went through the house of Henry Livingston, a house still standing, and another of which buried itself in the neighborhood between North Bridge street and Vassar street. The British are said also to have fired at the storehouse of James Winans, near the foot of Pine street. No con- temporary account of these incidents has been found, excepting as they are referred to in the letters of Gov. George Clinton and of General Israel Putnam. There were apparently but two companies or bodies of militia here at the time, one commanded by Col. Jacobus Freer of 171 men and the other by Col. Zephaniah Platt of 120 men. It is said that they fired at the ships and had a cannon which was used from what we now call Reynolds Hill. This is probably true, but there is no evidence to show whether the firing was during the ad- vance or retreat of Vaughn or at both times. There was great alarm throughout the whole neighborhood at this time and Gov. Clinton sent his wife out to the neighborhood of Pleasant Valley for safe keep- ing. Gen. Israel Putnam followed the ships with a considerable body of Continentals by the Post Road, and it was probably knowledge of the fact that kept the British from attempting any serious depreda- tions on this side of the river.
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
After the destruction of the forts that guarded the Highlands and the wanton destruction of Kingston (Oct. 16, 1777), Poughkeepsie became much more than ever before the center of revolutionary activity. The newly formed state government had scarcely organized in Kingston when the enemy arrived. After the retreat of the British, Gov. Clinton came to Poughkeepsie and the Council of Safety soon followed. Accommodations in the little town were scanty, but were the best to be had in any reasonably safe neighborhood and a number of pretty good houses belonging to 'Tories, who had been driven away, were available as residences, while the court house and perhaps the two churches could be used for legislative sittings. By proclama- tion dated December 15, 1777, Gov. Clinton called the Legislature to meet in Poughkeepsie on January 5, 1778. The first laws of the State of New York were passed here, and though the Legislature held two sessions in Kingston a few years later and two in Albany, most of its sessions were held here until after the evacuation of New York. A very large number of Gov. Clinton's letters are dated Poughkeepsie and show that the state offices were fixed here and that his residence remained here even when the Legislature met elsewhere. John Holt's paper, which had been removed from New York to Kingston and from Kingston to Poughkeepsie, contained the following notice, May 3, 1778: "The Court of Probate of the State of New York is now open at Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County, and the office kept at the house of Captain Ezekiel Cooper, of that place." This is signed, "Thomas Treadwell, Judge of the said Court." In the winter of 1778-1779 a regiment of Continentals was quartered in Poughkeepsie and bar- racks were erected on the south side of the village.
An interesting matter concerning Poughkeepsie's connection with the Revolution was the fact that the first American flag used in battle after the adoption of the stars and stripes, at the defense of Fort Stanwix or Schuyler in the summer of 1777, was made in part from a blue coat belonging to Captain Abraham Swartwout, of Pough- keepsie, the rest of the flag having been made also from such similar materials as could be obtained from the soldiers. This statement is substantiated by the following letter:
1. Record has recently been found in Holt's Journal for June 19th, 1780. of the in- dietment of Richard Everitt along with Bartholemew Crannell, Rev. John Beardsley, Samnel Pinkney, Isaac T. Lassing and othera for "adhering to the enemies of thia State," so it is certain that Everitt's house as well as Crannell's waa available for Governor Clin- ton's nse.
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POUGHKEEPSIE.
Poughkeepsie, 29 Aug. 1777.
Colonel Peter Gansevort, Fort Schuyler.
Dear Sir :- The great distance which your duty calls us apart obliges me at this time to give you this trouble which otherwise I would not-You may remember, agreeable to your promise, I was to have an order for eight yards of broadcloth on the commissary for clothing of this state in lieu of my blue cloak which was used for colors at Fort Schuyler. An opportunity now presenting itself, I beg you to send me an order enclosed to Mr. Jeremiah Renseler, pay master at Albany, to Mr. Henry Van Vaughter, Albany, where I will receive it, and you will oblige me, who will always acknowledge the same with true gratitude. Please make my compts to the other officers of the regiment.
I am, dear sir,
Your Hble. servt.,
ABRAHAM SWARTWOUT, Captain.
Until the capture of Stony Point by General Wayne, in July, 1779, and the transfer of the seat of war to the south there were frequent rumors that the British were planning another raid up the Hudson and the authorities at Poughkeepsie were constantly on the alert, with an eye upon the Fishkill beacons, where it was expected that a big fire would notify them of impending invasion. At the commissary headquarters in Poughkeepsie there was great activity in collecting and forwarding stores and ammunition to the army and there was also a storehouse at Wappingers Falls. During the severe winter of 1779-1780, when New York harbor became frozen over and all the mill streams of Dutchess froze solid, it was only with the greatest difficulty that enough provisions could be gathered to keep the garrison at West Point from starving. In September, 1780, the treason of Ar- nold created another scare along the Hudson and at the same time the constant depreciation of the Continental currency made the purchase of supplies and, indeed, the carrying on of any business more difficult than ever. The newspapers of the day, including both John Holt's Journal, published in Poughkeepsie from May, 1778, to November, 1783, and Loudon's New York Packet, published in Fishkill, were filled with reports of meetings and discussions over the best means of regulating prices and preventing further depreciation of the currency.
The Legislature was in session at Poughkeepsie when the news of the surrender of Cornwallis was received, in October, 1781, and both Houses immediately adjourned and went over to the Dutch Church, where a service of thanksgiving was conducted by Rev. John H. Liv-
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
ingston. The following account of this celebration is given in John Holt's Journal for November 3, 1781:
"On Monday, the 29 ultimo, when the first certain intelligence of the above glorious event (capture of the British army) arrived here, his Excellency, the Governor, the members of the Senate and Assembly, and many other persons, at- tended divine service in the Dutch Church, where the Revd. Dr. Livingston officiated in a solemn manner, to express their joy and gratitude to the Almighty for this signal interposition in our favor. The members of the Legislature then waited on his Excellency the Governor at his house with their congratulations and the voice of the cannon 13 times proclaimed the general joy, spreading the happy tidings; at night all the houses in and near the town were beautifully illuminated, a large bonfire was lighted, 13 skyrockets and other fireworks were played off and the evening concluded with social mirth and every decent demonstration of joy."
Poughkeepsie received considerable renown and some growth from the Revolution and became a rendezvous and place of residence for a good many famous men. It attracted particularly young men who wished to study law, and among the first of these was James Kent, afterwards the famous chancellor and the author of Kent's Commen- taries. He entered the law office of Egbert Benson, the first State Attorney General, in November, 1781, and was admitted to the bar in 1785. He married a Poughkeepsie girl, Elizabeth Bailey, and lived here, practicing law and studying, until 1793. He lived in "a snug and endearing little cottage and cultivated an excellent garden," as he tells us in his Memoirs, located about where the Morgan House now stands. He was a law partner of Gilbert Livingston, who lived in the next house to the east, while across the street, on the corner of what is now Academy street, lived Andrew Billings, the well-known silversmith of the day, who did work for Washington, Lord Sterling and other famous men. Kent was a strong Federalist and supporter of Hamilton and Jay, and though once elected to the Legislature, he was defeated for Congress in 1793 by his brother-in-law, Theodorus Bailey, and thereupon removed to New York. Other men afterwards distinguished, who were law students in Poughkeepsie or began their careers here soon after the Revolution, were James Tallmadge, Jr., James Emott, the elder, Cadwallader D. Colden, Thomas J. Oakley and Jonas Platt.
RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION.
The only really great event that has taken place in Poughkeepsie was the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. It was
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POUGHKEEPSIE.
a great event because New York's ratification was essential to the success of the nation, and also because ratification was obtained only after a memorable forensic struggle in which such great men as Ham- ilton, Jay, George Clinton, and Chancellor Livingston took part. The court house in which the Legislature had met during the Revolution was burned in the spring of 1785 and a new one was built in 1787. The Legislature, after a long absence, returned in 1788 to hold its winter session in Poughkeepsie and appointed this place for the con- vention to act upon the Constitution. Gov. Clinton was very strongly opposed to ratification and his influence determined the election of a large majority of the delegates against it. In ability, however, the majority was no match for the minority, which included Hamilton, Jay and Livingston. The delegates assembled June 17th and elected Gov. Clinton chairman. The debates dragged on until Virginia, the eighth state, and New Hampshire, the ninth, had ratified, and finally on July 15th Melancthon Smith, of this county, partly convinced by the eloquence and reasoning of Hamilton and Jay, moved that the Constitution should be ratified upon condition that a new convention of the states should be called to pass amendments. A ratification "upon condition" would not have been really a ratification at all, and Hamilton devoted all his energies to obtaining a change in the form of Smith's motion. At length Samuel Jones, of Queens County, one of the anti-federal members, was prevailed upon to move to substitute the words "in full confidence" for "upon condition." Melancthon Smith and Zephaniah Platt agreed to and spoke in favor of this change and the victory was won, though only by the narrowest kind of a majority, the vote upon the 1Jones motion being thirty-one to
1. The delegates who voted for Mr. Jones's motion, and they were practically the same as those who voted for the final ratification, were John Jay, Richard Morris, John Sloss Hobart, Alexander Hamilton, Robert R. Livingston, Isaac Roosevelt, James Duane, Richard Harrison and Nicholas Low, comprising the complete delegation of the County of New York ; Henry Scudder, Jonathan N. Havens, John Smith, of Suffolk ; Samuel Jones, John Schenck, Nathaniei Lawrence and Stephen Carmen, the complete delegation from the County of Queens; Peter Lefferts, Peter Vandervoort, the delegates from Kings ; Abraham Bancker and Gozen Ryerss, of Richmond ; Lewis Morris, Philip Livingston, Rich- ard Hatfield, Philip Van Cortland, Thaddeus Crane and Lott W. Sarls, of Westchester ; Zephaniah Platt, Melancthon Smith, Gilbert Livingston and John DeWitt, of Dutchess, and John Williams, one of the delegates from Washington and Clinton Counties. Those who voted in the negative were Robert Yates, John Lansing, Jr., Israel Thompson, An- thony Ten Eyck, of Albany ; Thomas Tredwell, of Suffolk ; George Clinton, John Cantine, George C. Schoonmaker, Ebenezer Clark, James Clinton, Dirck Wynkoop, the complets delegation from Ulster ; John Haring, Jesse Woodhull, Henry Wisner and John Wood, of Orange ; Jacobus Swartwout, Jonathan Akins, of Dutchess ; William Harper, Christopher
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
twenty-nine. The final vote was thirty to twenty-seven. Smith, Platt and Gilbert Livingston, of Dutchess County, the last two of Poughkeepsie, saved the day. The story of the convention has been fully told in an address delivered by the late John I. Platt at the centennial of the ratification, June 26, 1888, and in an address by the late Rev. A. P. VanGieson, which has been published. The Journal of the Convention has also been recently republished by Vas- sars Brothers' Institute in fac simile form, of the original printed re- port of "The Debates and Proceedings of the Convention," in 1788.
After the notable men of the convention had departed to their homes the little village of Poughkeepsie continned to reach out and grow. A map made in 1790 shows that some twenty houses in the central sec- tion were built between 1770 and 1790. The town of Poughkeepsie, also, must have been by that time pretty well settled and probably the area of cleared land was almost as great as it is at present. The limekilns at Barnegat were beginning to flourish certainly at this time. C. M. Woolsey's history of Marlborough publishes a map made in 1797 by Dr. Benjamin Ely, which shows limekilns on this side of the river at Barnegat and also at the mouth of the Wappingers.
New Hamburg, first called the Hook Landing, afterwards Wap- pingers Landing, had made some progress and there was certainly by 1789, and probably much earlier, a ferry at Captain VanKeuren's, or Theophilus Anthony's, about three miles below the village, at the neighborhood that was later called Milton ferry and still later Came- lot. It is called "Lewis's Ferry" in one of the early maps. (The present Camelot railroad station, it should be remembered, was moved from its old location a few years ago to Barnegat, where it now stands.)
The ferry at the village of Poughkeepsie was regularly established by 1798 and had probably been running irregularly for a long time before that. Poughkeepsie's first real home newspaper, first called the Country Journal and Poughkeepsie Advertiser, a name soon
P. Yates, John Frey, John Winn, Volkert Veeder and Henry Staring, of Montgomery ; Ichabod Parker, David Hopkins and Albert Baker, of Washington and Clinton; Peter Van Ness, John Bay, Matthew Adgate, of Columbia.
It cannot be said that the efforts of George Clinton, John Lansing, Meiancthon Smith and the other Anti-Federalists in the convention were without important results, for they may be said to have succeeded, in spite of the final form of New York's ratification, in forcing upon the states the first series of amendments to the Constitution which em- bodied the bili of rights.
H
THE "CLINTON HOUSE."
Owned and preserved by the State as a Revolutionary Memorial, in the care and custody of Mawenawasigh Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.
The top picture shows the building before alteration. Copyrighted 1904 by Helmus W. Barrett.
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POUGHKEEPSIE.
changed to the Poughkeepsie Journal, was established by Nicholas Power in 1785. It is still published, one hundred and fourteen years later, as the Poughkeepsie Eagle. It became at an early date a Fed- eralist newspaper, supporting Washington and Hamilton, and toward the close of the century opposition papers made their appearance, though all were very short lived until the establishment of the Political Barometer, in 1802. Isaac Mitchell, a writer of some note, was the editor of this paper for several years and author of the popular novel, "Alonzo and Melissa," which was published first in its columns as a continued story in 1804.
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