USA > New York > Dutchess County > The history of Dutchess County, New York > Part 35
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The large pond in the mountains is Whaley Pond. This line can be traced by the remains of an old wall leading over the south end of Purgatory, and also by the stone and rail fence extending along the southern declivity of Mount Tom.
This rock at Martin Leach's was the southeast corner of the Beek- man Patent, and this monument until 1731 was in the boundary line between Connecticut and New York, at which time the Oblong strip was taken off, and the New York State line established nearly two miles further to the eastward.
The territory comprised in Putnam County was by some styled Philipsburgh Manor from the fact that its proprietor, Adolph Philipse, was granted certain manorial rights and privileges. It bounds the town of Pawling on the south.
Thus we have a wedge-shaped piece of land extending from the
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Beekman Patent line to the Patterson line, the head of the wedge, nearly three miles across, abutting against the Connecticut line, with the point marked by a clump of bushes on the Hudson, known as "Plum Point." This wedge comprised a mere bagatell of territory, say fifteen thousand acres, more or less, that had been overlooked in the allottment of lands to the original patentees. Starting from the same point on the Hudson, the lines were run, without chain or com- pass, "four hours' going into the woods," diverging more and more the further the lines were extended.
The Beekman and the Philipse heirs both laid claim to territory within this "gore," which lay outside their lines ; and its division was the subject of bitter controversy for many years. The dispute was finally settled in 1771, and two ancient deeds of land in this town bear that date, given by the Philipse heirs, one to Reed Ferris and one to William Prendergast-the Dodge-Arnold farm and the Arnold homestead.
Fredericksburgh was at the time of the Revolution a village, after- wards called "The City," located near the present residence of Dr. Banks in Patterson. The appellation of this village gave the name to a large extent of territory, the residence of John Kane being within it. Among the old documents, Pawling is referred to by the name of Kingston.
The road leading south from Pawling village, now called the State Road, was originally laid out in 1745, and is described as running from Beekman's Patent into Westchester. The road running diag- onally up the hill toward Mr. Conger's was first built as a turnpike, and known as the Philipstown turnpike. The road from Patterson through Reynoldsville was called the Fishkill turnpike.
Spafford's Gazateer, published in 1813, gave the number of looms for the weaving of cloth in private families in Pawling as one hundred and two. In fact, at a much later date, nearly everything used by the farmers was made in town. Abram Thomas made the nails that went into the construction of the Hicksite Meeting House. Hiram Sherman made coffins and wagons. John Hays was a tailor. Isaac Ingersoll carried on the tannery business. Jeptha Sabin was a sad- dler and harness maker; and that the most essential needs of the ladies should have due recognition, Peter Field, the silversmith, opened a shop. John Toffey and Joseph Seely were hatters, while Amos
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Osborn made jugs. Stephen Briggs was a shoemaker, and there is the tradition of a forge on the glen stream on Quaker Hill. Miss Alicia H. Taber, in "Glimpses of the Past," from which some of the foregoing are quotations, says revolving hay rakes were first made in this town. There were two carding machines, one at Cole's Mills and the other at the Cyrus Tweedy mill. The Lattimer Iron Foun- dry was built later, but was washed away in a freshet. It stood on the stream north of Cole's Mill.
The population of the town in 1810 was 1756. Outside of the vil- lages it must have been more thickly inhabited than now. About 20,000 yards of cloth were produced from the family looms in the town that year. Patterson had a fulling mill, two carding machines and a distillery of grain and fruit spirits.
The fattening of cattle, says Miss Taber, constituted the chief business of most farmers in this vicinity. Live cattle were the only produce that did not have to go to the river to reach the market. The road through Pawling was the main thoroughfare from points as far north as Vermont. Monday was the market day in the city, and all started in time to reach their destination by Saturday. The cattle were started from Pawling on Thursday, taking the better part of three days to reach the city. It used to be remarked by cattle dealers that they could tell what the Monday's market would be by taking note of the droves that passed through Pawling on Thursday. The cattle were purchased by drovers, and by them disposed of in the city. The drover was something of a personage in those days. Inns or taverns were kept, located every few miles along the route, for the cattle required feeding every few miles. There was John Preston's, near Dover plains ; the Morehouse tavern at South Dover; there was a stopping place at Hurds Corners; next the hostelry at Gideon Slo- cum's in Pawling; next an inn at Akins Corners, and another at Benjamin V. Haviland's, and so on to the city. The books of the latter tavern show that in one year there had been kept 27,784 cattle, 30,000 sheep and 700 mules; and it is said there would at times be as many as 2,000 head between this and the tavern at John Preston's.
It is many years since public whippings were practiced in this vicinity, although in one instance the post itself remains. This par- ticular post is the Sycamore tree near the residence of Charles Rob- erts, on the John Kane place. This was the one used by Washington
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for military punishments, and was probably used for the civil as well. It was the army custom to administer one-half the number of blows ordered, say fifty or so, then wait two or three days until the wounds had festered, and then deliver the remainder. Some economic writers aver that public whipping was the best antidote for petty thieving of any invention of man; but public sentiment could no longer brook the cruelty of the practice, even if chicken roosts were the oftener looted.
Another custom, the "Putting out of the Poor," is happily dis- continued. This was no less than selling the unfortunate indigent into slavery, at times as abject as ever fell to the lot of the negro on a southern plantation. The poor people would be delivered into the custody of the lowest bidder, and he in turn would compensate himself by getting the most work out of his subjects with the least outlay of food and clothing. It is intimated that the officials of the different towns were not above ridding themselves of their own poor at the expense of their neighbor. At any rate a state law was passed forbidding the renting of a house to any person from another town without the consent of the Overseers of the Poor.
The first attempt to provide public transportation was the survey- ing of a route for a canal through the Harlem Valley; it is said the project was abandoned because some of its professed friends mis- appropriated the funds. The section of the Harlem railroad from Croton Falls to Dover Plains was opened December 31, 1849, teams being used to haul the train over a short stretch of road to its des- tination in order to meet the requirements of the charter.
Wilson, in his "Quaker Hill," has given some curious items culled from the ledger of the John Toffey store. The principal goods kept in stock in those primitive times were cloth, indigo, thread, cambric, penknives, "nittenneedles," plaster, fine salt, rum, molasses, tea, apple trees, nutmegs and shad. There was hardly an entry of goods sold without the item of "rum" was included. During the years 1814-'16, owing to war prices, molasses sold for $2 a gallon ; "tobago" at $2.75 the pound; flour $18, boots $9, and tea at $2.75 per pound. Ten years later molasses sold at 35 cents a gallon, and tobacco at 63 cents the pound.
Pawling has suffered from many conflagrations. Two church edi- fices have been burned, and the corner now occupied by the Ferris
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Block has twice been devastated. The first fire on the corner occurred in 1859, when E. I. Hurd kept a general store there; the next took place in October of 1892, when the feed store of Elmore Ferris, the Pawling Journal printing office, and six other buildings were de- stroyed.
The principal industry of Pawling now is that of the milk business. There are three milk factories, so-called,-the Sheffield Farms, Woody- crest and the Mutual,-at each of which the milk is received from the farmers, bottled for shipment or sent in cans to the metropolis. The normal output of the three institutions is about five hundred cans daily. Pawling lays claim to being the largest milk receiving station in the county. As the commodity is brought into the town in the early morning, the streets present a busy appearance with the multi- tude of loaded wagons from the country and the groups of happy children going to school.
Pawling village, incorporated in 1893, has about 800 inhabitants. Quaker Hill, Reynoldsville or Holmes, and West Pawling are hamlets.
The high elevations of Quaker Hill and the West Mountain were probably settled long before the lands in the valley between were occupied. The "Swamp fevers" were greatly feared by the pioneer settlers, and they avoided settling on the low grounds. Three brothers named Moshier emigrated to America long before the Revolution; one died soon after; another ran a mill in the town of Stanford, while a third settled somewhere on the West Mountain. That the west part of the town was at one time thickly inhabited is evident from the numbers of old cellars that one meets with here, during a day's ramble, each with tumble-down chimney, its old well, remains of garden walls and beds of "tansy" to fortify against the Swamp fever. Not unfre- quently one comes unexpectedly upon neglected burial places in the forest, and there is not a tradition of the people buried there. On the other hand it is said there was no house on the post road between Alfred Wing's and the Taber homestead; thus Pawling and Hurds Corners were not even in embryo. Among the settlers on the east side we find the names of Sherman, Merrit, Birdsall, Irish, Akin, Craft, Chase and Osborn. Of the valley there occur Shaw, Cary, Hunt, Sabin, Salmon, Pearce and Slocum. On the west there once dwelt the ancestors of the families by the name of Worden, Moshier, Dentory, Dibble, Davis and Turner. It is said there was quite an
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influx into the town about 1740. As those who immigrated here were not of the "Standing Order," religiously speaking, that is to say, they were Baptists and Methodists, and came from the east, it may be presumed they were attracted here by the promise of freedom of church worship. This however, hardly accords with tradition which says these early settlers were addicted to drinking, gaming, horse racing, cockfighting and wrestling.
As the military history of the town is embodied in the general his- tory of the county, more than a few local incidents of that time would be out of place here.
The official Headquarters of General Washington during his so- journ with his army in Pawling in 1778, were at the house of John Kane, now the site of the Roberts residence. In September, 1905, a copper tablet with an historical inscription was affixed to a large sycamore tree near by the house, and was unveiled with interesting and appropriate ceremonies. Mr. L. S. Patrick, of Marinette, Wis., delivered the historical address. The tablet was draped in the folds of a Union Jack intermingled with the Stars and Stripes, and Mrs. Laura Sherwood, 97 years of age, officiated at the ceremony of un- veiling. Mrs. Van Rensseleer Schuyler, of Sharon, Conn., a descend- ant of John Kane, was present by invitation to represent the former owner of the soil. Mr. Wilson followed Mr. Patrick's address in some remarks on the life and character of John Kane. This gentleman was a man owning considerable landed property in this vicinity. His sympathies were decidedly in favor of the patriots; but, having little faith in the ultimate success of their cause, was moved by considera- tions of self interest to side with the loyalists. He, however, took occasion to speak favorably of the Whigs on all public occasions, which greatly incensed the friends of the King. So when his estate was confiscated by the patriot authorities, he petitioned the King to reimburse him for his loss, but was met with the charge, "You talked too well of the King's rebellious subjects to receive favors at 'his hands." Disowned by both sides he was dispossessed of all his prop- erty,- the officers even stripping the pillows and blankets from a cradle in which his youngest child lay critically ill with pneumonia, and was drummed out of town. The shock and exposure proved fatal to the sick child, while the family suffered all the indignities that could be inflicted on the bitterest Tory. The good words he had spoken
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for them had been forgotten by the patriots, so inflamed they were by passion. The Arctic explorer of that name was a descendant of this same John Kane. The following is the inscription on the tablet: THE RESIDENCE OF JOHN KANE ON THIS SITE WAS HEADQUARTERS OF WASHINGTON FROM SEPTEMBER TWELFTH TO NOVEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH, 1778, WHILE THE SECOND LINE OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY WAS ENCAMPED ON QUAKER HILL AND IN THE VALLEY NEAR.
The residence of a Quaker by the name of Birch in the south end of Quaker Hill was robbed during the Autumn of 1778, by some sol- diers. On his promise not to follow them that night, they offered him no bodily harm. This promise, though made under duress, he kept on the honor of a Quaker, but at the hour the time limit expired he was on their track with a posse. He traced them to the army lines, where he recognized the villains, and identified his property on the person of one of them. The evidence was so conclusive, that the cul- prit was convicted before court-martial, and hung despite the pro- tests of Birch, who had no desire to push the matter to that extremity.
Nathan Pearce, Jun., who lived in the house standing, at the time of the Revolution, but since razed, on the bank nearly opposite the residence of O. A. Dykeman, was collector of military fines,-an office that was as distasteful to the public as could well be imagined. One night some robbers broke into the house, struck him with the butt of a musket, beat and kicked him into insensibility, and finally suspended him, lacerated and bleeding, by his thumbs to the chamber floor. Then after rummaging the house, they left him to be rescued by the family. He never saw a well moment thereafter, and survived the ordeal but six weeks. Some nights subsequent to this, his brother, Capt. William Pearce, with some followers, surprised this robber gang at their rendezvous in a cave on Quaker Hill. The robber chief, Vaughn by name, had on his person the clothes taken from his brother Nathan, and William had the satisfaction of running a sword through the body of his enemy in revenge for the murder of his brother.
Benjamin Sherman came from Massachusetts to Pawling in 1764,
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and probably lived in the tenant house on the Dodge-Arnold farm at the foot of Quaker Hill. The Shermans were proverbially wagon makers and drovers as well as farmers. The "Sherman wagon, the box of which was rounded up at both ends, with paneled side boards, and half as high again in rear as in front," as I well remember, was built by Benjamin. This tenant house has somehow escaped the notice of local antiquarians, which is the more singular as it has a "room with six doors and one window," lacking only a single door to be on a par with its illustrious rival at Newburgh. In this house some of Sherman's children were born. No taint of Toryism, or even neutrality, ever attached to Sherman or his sons, three of whom were in the Continental service. I am inclined to the opinion that Benja- min Sherman was Magistrate Sherman of whom Dr. Fallon speaks of so highly in his letter to Governor Clinton. It is a tradition that Vaughn and his night riders on one occasion, under cover of dark- ness, paid this family a visit, but found the old gentleman and his sons so well prepared to receive them that they were glad to depart after exchanging a few shots. The Shermans had a keg of gun- powder arranged with a train, in readiness to be fired in case they were overpowered, with the view to launch friend and foe alike into eternity, preferring death to falling into the hands of these "minions of the moon."
The money then in circulation was mostly gold sovereigns. As a place of security Sherman bored holes in the bottom of his bedposts, into which the sovereigns were dropped until the holes were nearly full, then a plug would be nicely fitted into each hole, and the bed- stead returned to its place. :
The family afterwards removed to the farm at present owned by Mr. George Ketchum. On a rising knoll to the north of the house is a monument marking the last resting place of Benjamin Sherman and Deborah his wife, erected to their memory by their appreciative grand- son, David H. Sherman.
PAWLING BAPTIST CHURCH. There is a tradition of a log church once standing near the Camp Meeting woods. There are evidences of a burial place on the west side of the road at the point, and a marble slab with the name, "Sarah, wife of Nathan Cary," may yet be seen on the farm. This confirms the supposition that Elder Henry Cary preached in this log structure, and that the dead of this community were buried in the graveyard contiguous to it. From the record of a
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marriage ceremony solemnized by Elder Cary in 1766, it is presumable this was the period of his residence in this vicinity.
Elder John Lawrence began preaching here in 1770, and was pas- tor of a church organized before the Revolution. In 1775 he was succeeded by Elder Phineas. Clark. One of Elder Lawrence's con- verts was Nehemiah Johnson ; the latter was ordained and commenced preaching when Elder Clark left, and served the Pawling church as its minister fifty-three consecutive years. The pastorate of Elder Johnson is not more remarkable for its length than for the peace and harmony that prevailed over the entire period. The writer of this chapter remembers the deep veneration with which the people of this vicinity regarded this sainted man. He had never enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education, and his language might not have been always grammatical, as measured by modern rules, but "he could remember nothing he said after announcing his text, and at the close of the sermon his audience was frequently found in tears." During the period of his ministry he labored with his own hands for his tem- poral support while administering to the spiritual needs of his people.
The earliest meeting house of this society was at the top of the West Mountain, where the Dug Way road intersects the Penny road that follows the crest of the mountain into the town of Dover. This was always known as the Johnson Meeting House, and is still remem- bered by some of our oldest citizens. Large congregations were ac- customed to gather there, and "they found it easy breathing in prayer on that high ground where they worshiped." The church at this time had a membership of ninety. Azariah Crandell was chosen deacon at its formation, holding the office until his death in 1808. In 1842 Benjamin Burr and Elijah Booth were deacons. In August, 1841, Elders Johnson and Kirby were required to revise the church records up to that date, and ascertain how many of those whose names were on the church books ought to be considered under the care of the church. Unfortunately those records cannot now be found.
At this period the society were holding meetings half the time in the Union Meeting House (the church "over the swamp" as spoken of in the Methodist records), that edifice having been completed about the year 1839. July 10th, 1841, at a service in this building, Elder Johnson gave a summary of his ministerial labors and asked the society to relieve him and appoint Elder Seth Higby as his successor.
The minutes of this church record that meetings were held in two
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neighborhoods in the spring of 1842 "with evident token of Divine Approbation." The first in the Reynolds school house in March; the next a month later "near Elder Higby's." The Elder at this time lived on the Daniel Dodge "home farm," in the big yellow house after- ward torn down. The meetings were held in the upper part of a wagon house on the premises. I well remember the seats of rough planks supported on pieces of logs sawed to the right length, and stood on end. A large accession to the church was made during these meetings, the baptisms taking place in the mill-pond near Willet Ferris, who, together with his wife and daughter, were among those baptized.
In the Spring of 1852 Elder J. W. Jones began to preach in the Temperance Hall (now the residence of Mrs. Spaulding) over the store of Robert Wetts, a hotel being conducted in the other end of the building. That same year a second church in Pawling was or- ganized, to be known as the Central Baptist Church of Pawling. Elder Jones agreed to preach for the term of one year on the stipu- lated guarantee of Richard Haynes of $50, with use of house as a parsonage. That same year Daniel Dodge, Alex Allen, Jr., and Orwin Theall were appointed a building committee to build a house of worship. In the following year the church edifice was dedicated.
Jones served as pastor two years in the new church; he was suc- ceeded by Reverends A. W. Valentine, S. L. Holman, G. W. Barnes, and D. T. Hill; Elder Hill began his pastorate in 1870. In the fol- lowing year the second son, David J. Hill (now U. S. Minister to Berlin), was licensed to preach the gospel. In 1876 the church edi- fice was removed to a central location within the village, and re- dedicated. In 1879 this meeting house was destroyed by fire, and in 1880 the present beautiful edifice was completed on the site of the former church. At the present time the society is prosperous and enjoying the ministry of Rev. W. W. Barker, formerly of New York.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The first entry on the minutes is of a Quarterly Conference on Pawlingville Circuit held at the church in New Fairfield, July 7, 1838. Here the names of Sanford and Reynolds first appear. Pawlingville Circuit had recently been taken off the Courtlandt Circuit, which included Carmel, and other "classes" below. That there was a constant change in boundaries and jurisdic- tions is evident from the fact that Archibald Campbell was at one time chosen to attend a District Steward's Meeting at Johnsville;
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later Jesse Scudder was appointed to represent the Pawlingville Cir- cuit at a similar meeting in Poughkeepsie; and again James Holmes and D. C. Green were sent for a like purpose to Pleasantville. Note, too, the change in the names of localities and stations. Pawlingville was then the hamlet now known as Hurds Corners. That quaint little square structure, standing on a hill, without a gable, the four sides of the roof coming to a point in the center, filled the double office of a place of secular and of religious instruction for the community, and was known far and wide as the "Bellcona." In it the Quarterly Conference Meetings dated at Pawlingville were held, and it was sacred to the memory of a Rice, a Reynolds, a Martindale and a host of pioneer Methodists. What is now Pawling was called Cen- terville, and later Pawling Center. Then there was the church "Over the Swamp," later known as the Union Church, now used as a barn; there was also the old Methodist Church standing on the corner be- low the village, its erection having been begun about 1813, but never completed. The station at Reynoldsville was designated as Fishkill Turnpike. There were meetings held at private houses, making in all quite a number of stations, at which the "preacher in charge" was expected to hold religious services.
The following were the official members on Pawling's Circuit, July 27, 1844. Ministers: William Jewett, Presiding Elder; George C. Bancroft, Preacher in Charge; Uriah Mead, Local Preacher; Archi- bald Campbell, 3d, recommended to travel. Jesse Scudder, Abraham Brown and Henry Ward, Stewards; Theodorus B. Sheldon, John Nick- erson, Isaac Scudder, Talmon Meade, B. S. Trowbridge, Nelson Por- ter and John Jewett, Exhorters; Warren Cary, Stephen P. Sher- wood, John Adams, Montgomery S. Platt, William St. John, Heze- kiel Wildman, Amos R. Stevens and Enoch Wheeler, Class Leaders. About this time the question of repairing the old Methodist Church was brought up, and a plan voted on, but the project fell through. The next we learn of a committee, composed of Cushing Green and Stephen P. Sherwood, being appointed to sell the building. I am in- formed that the committee were put to a deal of trouble in giving title, but it was finally disposed of to parties in Patterson. Since 1889 the Methodists had ceased to make use of the old Meeting House, and their services were held in the church Over the Swamp, which is desig- nated in their minutes as the "New Church," and indicates the time of its erection. About the year 1858 the society built a church at
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