USA > New York > Dutchess County > The history of Dutchess County, New York > Part 33
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
367
TOWN OF LA GRANGE.
latter part of 1828, and dedicated on New Year's Day, 1829, the original cost of which was $2,169.38. In 1831, twelve acres of land were purchased from Baltus Velie, for $650, and a parsonage erected thereon.
The church has been the recipient of several bequests including $500.00 from Mrs. Celia Taylor in 1842, and $200.00 from Adrian Montfort in 1871.
The first pastor was the Rev. Milton Buttolph. He was succeeded in 1838 by the Rev. Sumner Mandeville, who continued in his pastoral office twenty-three years. At present there is no settled pastor, ser- vices being conducted by a supply.
The organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church of La Grange was effected July 14, 1849. Previous to this date meetings were held occasionally in different neighborhoods by "circuit riders," and the inhabitants of the Morey vicinity attended chiefly at Potter's Hollow, where the first church edifice was built, and from which it was removed to Morey's in 1866, and called the "Trinity Church of La Grange." The minutes of the society contain no records of the early pastors, except for the year 1851, when Rev. Loren Clarke officiated.
Union Chapel at Manchester Bridge was originally situated at Titusville, and moved to its present location in 1884. Services are conducted regularly by ministers of various denominations.
At the outbreak of the Civil War several meetings were held in the town to stimulate interest in enlistments. Addresses were made by Albert Emans and Gilbert Dean. The town furnished seventy-seven men for the army, and thirty-five men enlisted in the navy. Most of the volunteers joined the 128th Regiment of Infantry, and did ser- vice in Louisiana.
The following has been the succession of Supervisors since the or- ganization of the town:
1821-'22 John Wilkinson
1834-'35 William Storm
1828 John Clapp
1836-'37 Treadwell Townsend
1824-'25 Jonathan Lockwood 1838-'39 E. T. Van Benschoten
1826 John Wilkinson
1840-'42 Gideon Van Valin
1827 John Clapp
1843
Tunis Brinckerhoff
1828-'29 Jonathan Lockwood
1844-45 Joseph Wicks
1880 E. T. Van Benschoten
1846-'47 Silas Sweet
1848-'49 Treadwell Townsend
1831 Jonathan Lockwood
1832-'33 E. T. Van Benschoten
1850-'51 Albert Emans
368
THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
1852-'53 John G. Pells
1877-'78 John W. Storm
1854 James Howard
1879-'80 Stephen H. Moore
1855-'56 Jacob Velie
1881
John D. Howard
1857-'58 Abraham W. Storm
1882
Charles Cole
1859
James Howard
1883-'84
1860
Henry Van Benschoten
1885
Alexander W. Sleight Henry R. Hoyt
1861 John S. Brown
1886-'87
Albert Emans
1862-'63 Albert Emans
1888-'90
William H. Austin
1864-'67 John W. Storm
1891-'93
Towsend Cole
1868 George Ayrault
1894-'95
Alexander W. Sleight
-1869-'70
Alexander W. Sleight
1896-'97 Joseph Van Wyck
1871-'72 James A. Stringham
1898-'03
John E. Townsend
1873 '74 John D. Howard
1904-'05
Alexander W. Sleight
1875-'76
Alexander W. Sleight
1906-'09
Clark Barmore
JOHN E. TOWNSEND.
369
TOWN OF MILAN.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE TOWN OF MILAN.
M ILAN was formed from the town of Northeast, March 6, 1818. Stissing Mountain was a barrier to any communication east by highways, and it was reasonable and right that Milan should be set off from the parent town. The division seems to have been anticipated for two years or more, and highway work mean- while came to a comparative standstill.
The town lies on the northern border of Dutchess County, and comprises the western portion of that tract of land originally em- braced in the Little Nine Partner' patent. It is bounded northerly by Columbia County; east by Pine Plains; south by Clinton and Stanford; and west by Red Hook and Rhinebeck. It covers an area of 22,452 acres, with an assessed valuation of real and personal prop- erty placed by the Board of Supervisors in 1907 at $369,324. La- fayetteville, Milan and Rock City are hamlets.
In the year 1760, Johannes Rowe, a German by birth, located in this town north of what is now Lafayetteville, on nine hundred and eleven acres of land which he purchased of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston. For this land he paid £750, on which, in 1766, he built a stone homestead. Much of the land is still in possession of the Rowe family. Johannes Rowe died in 1771, and was buried in the family ground across the road from the church which bears the family nane. He had four sons-John, Sebastian, Philip and Mark, who settled around on the land of their father's purchase, and to each of whom he gave a farm. The sons built the Methodist Church there, and were generous supporters of local enterprises. Philip had a son, William P. Rowe, who served as a soldier in the war of 1812.
Other early settlers at Lafayetteville were Maltiah and Macy Bow- man (Bowerman) who came from Connecticut to Dover in 1780, and to Milan in 1790. Maltiah is the ancestor of the Milan families of that name. He had three sons-Joseph, Otis E., and Sands. Otis
370
THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
E. was a surveyor, and for twenty years a lawyer of some note. The Wilburs, Briggs, Whites, Pells, Hicks, Martins and Motts settled near the east part, while the Links, Holsopples, Rhyfenburghs, Kill- mans, Fultons, Stalls, Fellers, Hopemans, Philips, Teats and Fra- ziers took up land in the north part of the town. A description of the town and some statistics published in Spaffords Gazetteer of 1824, six years after the division from Northeast, says in part:
"It is a good Township of land, though considerably uneven, but with rich arable swells, hills and ridges, and some flats. The soil is principally a warm productive loam. The inhabitants are principally farmers, and there are no villages, as yet, to demand the application of a microscope, or tire a topographer's patience. Its streams are some small head branches of Wappingers creek, and a short distance of Ancram creek, with a branch that puts into it, but the town is well supplied with mills. There are plenty of roads. The centre, always meant, when I speak of distances in this way, is about 8 miles E. of the Hudson, at Red Hook. Popu- lation, 1797: 358 farmers, 77 mechanics, 3 traders, 49 free blacks, 18 slaves; tax- able property, $370,794; 11 schools; 15,392 acres of improved land; 1834 cattle, 679 horses, 3618 sheep, 17,866 yards of cloth made in the household way; 7 grist mills, 4 saw mills; 1 fulling mill, 1 carding machine; 1 trip hammer, and one dis- tillery."
The oldest mill in the town was built by Robert Thorne some two miles west of Lafayetteville. This hamlet was on the post road from Northeast to Rhinebeck, and before the birth of railroads in northern Dutchess was a place of some business importance. William Walter- mier conceived the idea of building a hotel here for the accommodation of the travelling public. He conducted it successfully for ten years, when he disposed of the property to Jacob Knickerbacker.
The hamlet of Milan, also on the old post route near the center of the town, was originally called "West Northeast." In the Dutchess Observer of September 2, 1818, this notice appears: "The name of the postoffice heretofore called 'West Northeast' in this county, of which Stephen Thorne, Esq., is Post Master, has been changed to Milan. Persons directing that office will notice alterations for the future."
The first town meeting for Milan was held at the house of Stephen Thorne on the first Tuesday in April, 1818. Apart from the election of the following officers, the proceedings of this meeting relate to the raising of money for the support of the poor, and for building and repairing bridges.
371
TOWN OF MILAN.
Supervisor, Stephen Thorne; Town Clerk, John F. Bartlett; Asses- sors, Jonas Wildey, John Fulton, Jr., John Stall; Commissioners of Highways, Everet N. Van Trogner, Daniel Morehouse, James Tur- ner ; Commissioners of Schools, Henry Peck, John Thorne, Jr., Jeptha Wilbur; Overseers of Poor, Jacob Shook, James I. Stewart; Inspec- tors of Common Schools, Joshua Colleres, John Darling, James Adams, John R. Heermance, Peter Snyder; Constable and Collector, Philip Rider; Constable, Henry Witherwax; Fence Viewers, Tobias Green, in the southern neighborhood, Obediah Quimby in the northeast, and Jacob Bachman in the northwest.
The poor was the principal matter in common to the two towns to be settled. Northeast took ten persons, Milan twelve, and three were left to be supported by both towns jointly in proportion to the tax list, Northeast to pay at the ratio of seven to five. The next year a general settlement was made.
In the summer of 1818 new bridges were built over a stream at Mount Ross and at Hoffman's Mill, which cost $195 and $185 re- spectively.
In the War of the Rebellion the town of Milan not only responded generously to the call for volunteers, but kept a complete and interest- ing record of its proceedings, relating to enlistments, in a manner greatly above the average towns.
At the first meeting to raise a war fund held at the house of Nelson Motts, November 29, 1862, it was
"Resolved, That the sum of $2,265.66 be levied on the town, and the same be assumed as a debt upon the town and the taxable property therein.
"Resolved, That the sum of $900.00 be levied on said town, to be paid to the volunteers who enlisted previous to the 26th of August, 1862, the said $900.00 to be paid to John Ferris, Alonzo Carroll and Philo Sherwood, to be kept by them for the benefit of the volunteers who enlisted previous as above stated."
August 9, 1864, a special town meeting was held at the house of Ambrose L. Smith at which it was
"Resolved, That the Supervisor of the town shall have the power to borrow money on the credit of the said town sufficient to pay volunteers to fill the quota of the town under the call of the President for 500,000 men.
"Resolved, That to every man who shall volunteer and be mustered into the United States service for the term of three years shall be paid as a town bounty the sum of $500.00, and to every man that is drafted under the present call shall be paid, as a bounty from this town, the sum of $400.00."
372
THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
A further resolution appointed Supervisor Lewis M. Smith and H. B. Sherwood to procure volunteers, for which they were allowed three dollars per day and expenses.
The town voted a bounty of $600.00 for one-year men, $700.00 for two-years' men, and $800.00 for those who entered the service for three years, following the call of the President December 19, 1864, for 300,000 men.
In the record of enlistments seventeen men served in the 128th Regiment; twelve in the 150th; seven in the 20th; five in the 9Ist; three in the 159th; three in the 47th; two each in the 32nd and 87th Regiments, with a scattering of seven others.
The Methodist Society here was organized mainly through the efforts of the Rowes, who built the first house of worship on their farm near Lafayetteville about the year 1800. This was succeeded in 1838 by a substantial structure near the site of the old building, and was crected chiefly through the generosity of John Rowe, who also built the parsonage. His home had been the stopping place of all the itinerant Methodist preachers.
The "Christian Denomination" originated from three of the more popular sects, the Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists, about the beginning of the nineteenth century. Among the first to break this. denominational ground in the town were Levi Hathaway and Daniel Call, who organized the First Christian Church in Milan in the autumn of 1820. Elder John L. Peavey of New England was called to the oversight of the church. His circuit of labor embraced this and three other congregations, located in Stanford, Union Vale and Beekman. His friends assisted him in purchasing a home near Rock City, and Elder Peavey divided his time between pastoral work and itinerant labors. He was not only a talented man, but a kind and successful pastor. Other early pastors of the Christian Church were Dr. Abner Jones, Rev. Joseph Marsh and Rev. John N. Spoor.
The following has been the succession of Supervisors since the or- ganization of the town :
1818-'20 Stephen Thorne
1829
Stephen Thorne
1821-'23 Jacob Shook
1830
Ephraim Fulton
1824-'25 Richard Thorne
1831
Stephen Thorne
1896-'27 Stephen Thorne
1832-'34
Ephraim Herrick, Jr.
1828 Henry Fulton
1835-'36
Leonard Rowe
373
TOWN OF MILAN.
1887-'38 John Thorne
1871
Horatio Rowe
1889-'40 John P. Teats
1872
Albert Bowman
1841-'42 George White
1873
Nicholas Phillips
1848-'44 Stephen Thorne
1874
Ezra L. Morehouse
1847
1876
James Herrick
1849
John Ferris
1879-'80
Horatio Rowe
1850-'51
Rensselaer Case
1881-'82
John W. Stickle
1852-'53
Benjamin S. Thorne
1883
Adelbert Husted
1854-'55
William Ferris
1884-'85
James Herrick
1856-'57
John Teats, Jr.
1886-987
Adelbert Husted
1858
Rensselear Case
1888-'89
John W. Stickle
1859-'60
Alexander Best
1890
Cyrus F. Morehouse
1861-'62
Herrick Thorne Peter Rissebbrack
1892-'93
Cyrus F. Morehouse
1864
Lewis M. Smith
1894
Irving B. Crouse
1865
John W. Stickle
1895
Uriah Teator
1866
Alexander Best
1896-'97
Cyrus F. Morehouse
1867
Herrick Thorne
1898-'01
George A. Boice
1868
Henry A. Fellers
1902-'07
Cyrus F. Morehouse
1869-'70
Harmon B. Sherwood
1908-'09
Charles B. Simmons
1845-'46 Clinton W. Conger Otis E. Bowman 1848 Leonard Rowe
1875
William E. Shoemaker
1877-'78
Uriah Teator
1891
Irving B. Crouse
1863
374
THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
CHAPTER XXV. TOWN OF NORTHEAST.
BY PHILIP H. SMITH.
T HE Little Nine Partner Patent granted in 1706, the North- east Precinct, constituted in 1746, and Northeast Town, erected in 1788, and the present towns of Northeast, Pine Plains and Milan, taken collectively, comprised approximately the same territorial limits. Huntting says that this section of the county, originally embraced in a single town, was by creation separated into three geographical divisions before a surveyor was thought of or needed. The Winchell Mountain is a barrier between the Harlem Valley and Stissing Basin, while Stissing Mountain divides the latter from the valley of Milan. Thus are situate the three towns side by side, each occupying a natural basin, with mountain ridges for boun- daries.
In 1818 Milan was set off by itself. Until 1823 letters addressed to Northeast were received at what is now Pine Plains. Some of the pioneers who settled in Salisbury, Conn., died in the State of New York on the same farms they cleared. A man from Westchester bought a farm in the town of Northeast. His brother some years later visited him on this identical farm in the town of Milan.
These paradoxical statements are made possible by reason of the changes in the town and state boundaries. The Harlem Railroad, when first built, ran through a corner of Massachusetts. Now the trains pass a half mile west of the state line-Massachusetts having receded that distance-but this will be told of more fully elsewhere.
In 1823, Northeast was shorn of Pine Plains, but had annexed a liberal slice of Amenia to its southern border at the same time, thus preserving its equilibrium among its sister towns by this compensa- tion in wealth and population.
Before the town of Northeast was divided, all Northeast and Milan, as towns now stand, went to the Stissing House in Pine Plains to vote.
375
TOWN OF NORTHEAST.
The town records of the present Northeast previous to 1823 were kept in the Town Clerk's office at Pine Plains. Under these circum- stances it is not always easy to make historical statements clear to the reader.
Northeast received its name from its geographical position in the county. A tongue of land approximately two miles in width, extends along the Connecticut border into the town of Ancram, Columbia County, about four miles beyond the remaining portion of the town. Northeast is bounded on the north by Columbia County, east by Litchfield County in Connecticut, south by Amenia and west by Stan- ford and Pine Plains.
A lofty range of the Taconic Mountains extends along the eastern border, with the Winchell Mountain on the west. Rudd Pond and Indian Pond are the principal bodies of water, the latter lying for the most part, in the State of Connecticut. The "Ten Mile" River, some eighteen miles in length, runs south through the eastern part of the town, through Amenia and into Dover, where it forms a con- fluence with the Housatonic. The Shekomeko runs in a northerly di- rection through its western portion.
The first town meeting in Northeast as at present constituted was held at Northeast Center. The following is the earliest record: Pur- suant to an act of the Legislature of the State of New York, passed March 26, 1823, for dividing the towns of Amenia and Northeast in the County of Dutchess, and erecting a new town therefrom by the name of Northeast, and directing the first town meeting to be held at the house of Alexander Neeley in said town.
A town meeting was held at the house of the aforesaid Alexander Neeley, on the first day of April, 1823; the above act was read; Enos Hopkins was chosen Moderator, Charles Perry and Alanson Pulver, Clerks. Among the regulations, or town laws, passed for the town of Northeast at this meeting are these: Voted, that a fence, to be considered lawful, shall be four feet and a half high; that the materi- als shall be laid no more than five inches apart for two feet above the ground. Voted, that no hogs shall be suffered to roam in the high- ways after three months old without a ring in their nose. Voted, that proper persons shall be employed to run the line between the towns of Amenia and Northeast.
At the annual town meeting of Northeast on the 6th of April, 1824,
376
THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
John H. Wilson, Alexander Colver and Eli Mills were elected Com- missioners of Common Schools; Charles Perry, Peter Mills and John Buttolph, Inspectors of Schools. Each town, by this system, was the supreme judge of the requisite qualities of the teachers, and the sole arbiter of the curriculum of the schools.
At the annual town meeting in 1824, Voted, that the town raise the sum of six hundred dollars for the support of the poor. In con- nection with the preceding, the following entry explains itself : "We, Joel Benton, Supervisor and Solomon Cook and Joel Brown, Over- seers of the Poor of the town of Amenia, and Philo M. Winchell, Super- visor, and Eben Wheeler and Enos Howkins, Overseers of the town of Northeast, being convened for the purpose of dividing the poor and money of the town of Amenia."
It will be recollected that Northeast had just annexed a part of Amenia, and the territory annexed carried with it its quota of the poor of the entire town. Those early legislatures could not agree as to what would be a proper division, and public feeling was aroused to such an extent that the matter was taken to the Court of General Sessions at Poughkeepsie for adjudication. By direction of the court eighteen persons (named in the record) were by these town officials, assigned to Amenia and twelve others allotted to Northeast.
At this time each town was required to take care of its own poor, and the officials sometimes were not proof against the temptation to be rid of objectionable citizens at the expense of other towns. The question was a continual source of bitter jealousy and wrangling until the state passed a law which mitigated the condition. The follow- ing is among the entries: "We have set to the town of Pine Plains (naming fifteen persons), and set to the town of Northeast (naming six persons), and there are still six persons that are not divided, and are a subject of future arrangement."
There were other sources of friction, owing to the changes in town lines, such as the division of school and highway moneys, and the settlement of quit rents, the latter having reluctantly been permitted to survive until about 1823, when this vestige of English manorial customs was banished from American soil.
The earliest settlements in Northeast were made in the Oblong tract. One reason for this was that better titles could be given to the prop- erty, which were guaranteed by the state; and, being contiguous to
377
TOWN OF NORTHEAST.
New England where most of the early settlers came from, these prob- ably located at the first desirable place they came to; the iron mines were another and perhaps stronger attraction.
Spencers Corners or "Clearing" was among the oldest settled parts of the Oblong. The history of the Baptist Church built here in 1777, during the Revolutionary War, is given on other pages. Their church edifice in Northeast stood near the present cemetery, opposite the brick house now occupied by Walter Wilcoxson. The well used by those early Baptist worshipers still supplies the sweetest and purest water for miles, and is located in the Wilcoxson yard. This well was originally partially enclosed in a "well house," and was provided with seats around the sides. The farmers came from distance, on Sunday mornings, with their families in wagons drawn by oxen, remaining all day and listening to the sermons, and adjourning to the "well house" for their noonday repast.
North of Spencers Corners a short mile, stands the old-fashioned, rambling, small-windowed, many-roomed dwelling house of the Dakins. Orville Dakin, the ancestor of the Dakins, and owner of the mine and furnace adjacent, built this house when the country was a wilderness. There was a line of ore beds from here to Boston Corners and beyond, of which the Dakins were either sole or part owners. To the west of this line, at Irondale, are the buildings of the Millerton Iron Com- pany, now sadly fallen to ruin. This was once a busy hamlet, having a mill employing over one hundred hands, with grist mill, store and postoffice. Now nothing but a school and a few families remain.
In fact the digging and smelting of ore constituted the leading in- dustry of this part of Northeast for the better part of a century. During this early period other lines of business occupied their neigh- bors over the mountain, in the southwest part of the town. The fol- lowing advertisement shows the nature of the business referred to, and tells of its decadence :
"MILL FOR SALE .- The subscriber offers for sale his mills, situate in Amenia (now Northeast), four miles north from the Federal Store. The neighborhood consists of wealthy farmers, and the surrounding country very productive of wheat. The machinery of the grist mill and fulling mills are in tolerable good order, and the stream which supplies them very durable. There is adjoining fourteen acres of good wheat land, and a comfortable dwelling house, garden, &. The terms of payment will be made easy. A good title and possession given immediately by applying to the subscriber living near the premises.
May 4, 1807.
MATTHIAS Row."
378
THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
At one time the "Federal Store" referred to was a busy place. Some years previously a stock company had made this point a nucleus for general exchange and merchandising in this vicinity, their shipping point being Poughkeepsie. This Association was called the Federal Company, and the store the Federal Store. There was also a grist mill, a carding machine and fulling mill; also a factory for the manu- facture of farm implements. The store ceased as a place of business before 1850.
The invasion of the Harlem Railroad into the vicinity about 1852 wrought a great change in the town. Carding machines, fulling mills and family looms are things of the past, and the shipping of milk to the New York markets has become the great industry of Northeast.
In the early years of our local history the system of carrying the mails was very inadequate and unsatisfactory. Oftentimes letters would be trusted to a friend, who happened to be traveling to the vicinity of the letter's destination. Important messages usually were sent by special carrier. In old documents the person who is deputed to be the bearer of the communication is frequently mentioned by name. Some fifteen or twenty years after the close of the Revolution, private parties undertook the carrying of letters and papers on their own account, the sender or receiver of the letter paying the carrier therefor. In 1796 Alexander Neeley, of Northeast Center, started a post route in the upper part of the county, and it is said that for several years after the war of 1812 with England, he carried the gov- ernment mails from Pine Plains to Sharon. At first the postman took for his own all the income of the business; later, after the route was established, the government assumed its control, reimbursing the carrier for his interest. Spencers Corners was early a postoffice; an- other was Northeast Center, where, in 1823, Alexander Neeley was both postmaster and merchant.
At the outbreak of the Revolution there was a great demand for lead for bullets. An Indian used to bring quantities of lead to Ezra Clark at about this time; he said he got it on Indian Mountain, but would not tell where. No one was ever able to find the place. The requirements of the new governments also called for sulphur and flint. Near the present hamlet of Shekomeko, in the southwestern part of the town, one John McDonald, a miner from Scotland, under instruc- tions from the Provincial Congress, began to excavate where a mine
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.