USA > New York > Dutchess County > The history of Dutchess County, New York > Part 42
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The village of Chelsea, formerly known as Low Point or Carthage Landing postoffice, had at one time a shipyard owned by Cornelius Carman, where sloops and steamboats were launched. Its importance as a place of river commerce was equal to that of the two landings, or docks, at Fishkill, but it could not withstand the competition with Fishkill Landing after John Peter De Wint had completed the Long Dock, about 1815, with facilities for the shipment of produce from the back country, notwithstanding Chelsea's deep water and other advantages.
In the County Clerk's office at Poughkeepsie there is a map made in 1812, entitled "A map of Carthage, in Dutchess County, at a place called Low Point, on the Hudson, or North River." It shows the plottings of a proposed village with several streets, including Liberty, Spring, Union, Market, and North; also a Broadway.
Captain Charles P. Adriance, Solomon P. Hopkins and Gilbert S. Hopkins conducted a freighting business from. Low Point until 1856.
A large flour mill, operated by the late Starr B. Knox, stood on the dock. The business proved unsuccessful, and the mill was allowed to fall to ruin. Later an industry for the manufacture of cement, for use in the first Poughkeepsie bridge, was started here. The busi- ness was discontinued with the failure of the first bridge project in 1873.
Among the early residents of the neighborhood was Jacob Sebring, who lived in a large white house overlooking the river, and built a dock where he kept a yacht. He died about 1860. His widow, who was formerly Miss Margaret Ackerman, survived him many years, and gave the house and land to her nephew, Sebring Ackerman.
Another large house in the village was Gilbert Budd's, a cousin of Underhill Budd, whose farm lay in the vicinity. Gilbert Budd had a lumber yard, and was interested in the freighting business.
Starr B. Knox, the miller and Justice of the Peace, married for his first wife the daughter of Benjamin Hopkins, of Stormville, and his second wife was Amy B., the daughter of John L. Collyer. One of their sons is now a mechanical engineer, and the other a clergyman,
THE MESIER MANSION, WAPPINGERS FALLS.
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TOWN OF WAPPINGER.
recently appointed chaplain of Columbia University. The house now owned by Captain Moses Collyer was formerly the rectory of St. Mark's Church, and stands on the site of the old one destroyed by fire.
CHURCHES.
THE REFORMED CHURCH OF NEW HACKENSACK was organized in 1758. For several years services were held in private houses. In 1766 there were thirty-three members in full communion, and a wooden church edifice built. This building was taken down in 1834, when the present brick church was erected.
The first settled pastor was the Rev. Isaac Rysdyck, who served the church from 1765 to 1789. He also ministered to the congregations at Poughkeepsie, Fishkill and Hopewell. Dr. Rysdyck died in 1791, and was buried beneath this church. In 1834 his remains were re- moved to a plot in the adjoining graveyard.
The next pastor was the Rev. Nicholas Van Vraken, who was called in 1791 and remained until 1804. He was followed by Rev. John Barkalo, 1805-1810; Thomas De Witt, 1812-1826; W. W. Dwight, 1826-1833; Cornelius Van Cleef, 1833-1866; Henry Ward, 1867- 1887; William A. Dumont, 1888, who continues his labors to the pres- ent time.
In the winter of 1900 Ellessdie Chapel, situated two miles north of New Hamburg, on the river road, and which was built by Mr. James Lenox in 1840, was taken down and removed to New Hackensack as an auxiliary building to the Reformed Church. It was re-dedicated to its present use October 21, 1901, the services being conducted by the Rev. J. K. Wight, who for many years had supplied the pulpit of Ellessdie at its former location.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF WAPPINGER'S FALLS. In 1824 preachers in the Dutchess circuit held Methodist services at the house of Joseph G. Smith, near Middlebush. February 21, 1830, the "Mid- dlebush M. E. Church" was organized, and Matthias Randolph, James S. Green and John Finch were elected trustees. A lot with a build- ing thereon suitable for a meeting house was purchased from William B. and Caroline Phillips. For several years the pulpit was supplied by circuit preachers.
In 1845 a Methodist Episcopal Society was organized at Wap- pinger's Falls, and a small edifice erected on the west side of the creek in what was then the village of Channingville.
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
It was decided in 1867 to consolidate the Middlebush and Wapping- er's Falls churches. The former was too far from the rapidly grow- ing village, and that at Channingville not large enough to meet the demands of both. Accordingly, in April of the following year, the lot now occupied by the Wappinger's Falls Methodist Episcopal Church was purchased from the estate of Margaret Reese, for $902.50, and the present church building erected at a cost of $14,- 865.83, the funds for which were mainly raised by the exertions of Rev. A. C. Morehouse, who was appointed to the circuit in the spring of 1869. Rev. F. A. Coons is the present pastor.
ZION PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. This church was estab- lished at Wappinger's Falls in 1833, through the efforts of Rev. George B. Andrews, Matthew Mesier and Benjamin Clapp. The corner stone of the edifice was laid November 15, 1834, and the church consecrated by Bishop Onderdonk, of New York, May 6, 1836. Mat- thew Mesier and Benjamin Clapp were chosen wardens; the vestry- men were: Dr. Peter D. Schenck, Henry Mesier, William I. Hugh- son, James Ingham, Daniel S. Cox, Emory Low and E. D. Sweet. Rev. George B. Andrews, the first rector, served this church for a period of forty-one years. He died August 20, 1874, and was buried in the Wappinger's Falls cemetery. Subsequent rectors were H. Y. Satterlee, J. N. Steele, Prescott Evarts and Rev. Dr. Pott.
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH at Wappinger's Falls owes its existence and for many years much of its support, to Mrs. John Fisher Sheafe, whose country seat was near New Hamburgh. She instructed the Rev. John D. Wells, who was then preaching at Ellessdie Chapel, to investigate the field at Wappingers and see if there was a call for a church. This resulted in the organization of a Presbyterian Society in 1848, and in the same year a church edifice was built for the con- gregation by Mrs. Sheafe, on Fulton street. She also built the par- sonage, gave it rent free, with $200.00 a year in addition toward the support of the pastor. During the pastorate of Rev. O. A. Kings- bury-1870 to '73-the property on Fulton street was sold, and the present brick edifice on South avenue erected, to the expense of which Mrs. Sheafe contributed generously. The new church was dedicated July 25, 1872. Rev. William Parker is the present pastor.
THE BAPTIST CHURCH was organized at Wappinger's Falls in 1838. Samuel Cushman, John Hodge and Peter Laurence were elected dea-
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cons, and Benjamin Clapp, clerk. Mr. Clapp, who was formerly a warden in Zion Episcopal Church, became converted to the Baptist faith. He supplied a building for the use of the society, in which services were held for nine years. The first pastor was the Rev. John Johns. In 1846 the society decided to erect an edifice, and Mr. Clapp donated a lot at the corner of South avenue and Prospect street. The church was dedicated December 5, 1847, at which time Rev. Nathan A. Reed was pastor. Mr. Clapp died in 1872, and bequeathed to the church $2,500.00 for a parsonage. Mr. Clapp's heirs added $2,000 to the bequest, and the parsonage was built in 1873. Extensive im- provements were made to the church building in 1883. The present pastor, Rev. Charles S. Hutchinson, was installed May 1, 1907.
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH at Chelsea. This society was organized in 1823, and erected a house of worship in 1833, at a cost of $950.00, at which time the following trustees were in office: Elijah Budd, John H. Brinckerhoff, Felix Shurter, Henry I. Brinckerhoff and Garret B. Brinckerhoff. In 1870, under the pastorate of Rev. Samuel MacCutcheon, about $1,600.00 was expended on improvements to the church building. The parsonage was built and furnished in 1890, at a cost of $2,200. Rev. Samuel P. Gallaway is the present pastor.
ST. MARK'S CHURCH, Chelsea, was built about 1867, and consecrated soon after by the late Horatio Potter, Bishop of New York. The church owes its origin to the efforts of Mr. William Henry Merritt, who met an untimely death, together with his wife (nee Scrysmer), and his sister, when passengers on the Steamship Atlantic in 1873. Mr. and Mrs. Richard P. Hart, Mrs. Gilbert Collins and her daugh- ters, Mr. and Mrs. William S. Verplanck and daughters, Mr. Samuel Verplanck, Captain Charles Adriance and his daughters, Mr and Mrs. John Shurter, Mr. and Mrs. Taplin and daughters, the Misses Hop- kins, the family of Captain John L. Collyer, Mr. Starr B. Knox, Miss Pauline Mackinnon and others also took prominent parts in estab- lishing the church.
Dr. Frederick W. Shelton was the first resident rector, and he con- tinued such until his death in 1881. Dr. Shelton was a graduate of Princeton, and soon became a writer of distinction. His "Up River Letters," "Salander and the Dragon," and several poems, are among his noteworthy works. The church has lost support and attendance
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
during the past fifteen years, owing to the removal or death of many of its former parishioners, and it is now a mission under the arch- deaconary of Dutchess County.
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH at Hughsonville. In 1840 the Rev. Eliphalet Price, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at New Ham- burgh, built a meeting house at Hughsonville, to be used as a mission in connection with the New Hamburgh church. Services were con- ducted by supplies from various churches until 1892, when the Rev. Calvin Wright was installed as pastor, and new life given to the church. The Rev. Mr. Dowerty supplied the pulpit from October, 1908, to March, 1909, when he was installed as pastor.
A sketch of the Roman Catholic Church at Wappinger's Falls will be found in a subsequent chapter.
THE GRINNELL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. The Grinnell Library is a local institution in which the people of Wappinger's Falls deservedly take much pride .. This beautiful Swiss-chalet like library building crowning Main street hill at the entrance to the village park, was the joint gift of Mr. and Mrs. Irving Grinnell to the people of Wap- pinger's Falls.
For some years Mr. Grinnell maintained a library and reading room in the old Mesier residence at the corner of Main and Market streets. Mrs. E. A. Howarth was its librarian, and its limited accommodations were soon outgrown. In 1887 Mr. Grinnell built the present build- ing, and 'April 30, 1888, transferred to the trustees of the Grinnell Library Association the control and management of the library, to be held by them in trust for the village. The original board of trustees consisted of the following: Hon. John Thompson, Francis R. Rives, Dr. Clarence Satterlee, William Henry Reese, Samuel Mansfield, Elias Brown, William Bogle, Clinton W. Clapp, James Marlor, William Halliwell, John Brennan, Hugh B. Dougherty, William K. Roy and Arminius W. Armstrong. A charter, approved by Justice Joseph F. Barnard, had been granted under the laws of the State of New York on January 30, 1888. The board organized by electing the Hon. Francis R. Rives, president; Arminus W. Armstrong, vice- president; William Bogle, treasurer, and William K. Roy, secretary. Dr. Clarence Satterlee was chairman of the Library Committee, and William Halliwell, chairman of the Real Estate Committee. Mrs. E. A. Howarth was appointed librarian, and the library, well organized
WALTER P. MILLARD.
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TOWN OF WAPPINGER.
and equipped, started on its career of ever increasing prosperity and usefulness.
It is a subscription library, with the price of tickets placed at a nominal sum. The library is entirely self-supporting, and according to its last quarterly report, had 323 subscribers. There were 7,769 volumes on its shelves. The total circulation of the three months was 3,000. The present officers are: W. Henry Reese, president; Wil- liam Halliwell, vice-president ; William A. Brewster, treasurer, and William K. Roy, secretary.
The Wappingers Savings Bank was incorporated April 23, 1869, with the following officers: Samuel W. Johnson, president; Israel T. Nichols and Dennis Sheehan, vice-presidents ; Clayton E. Sweet, sec- retary and treasurer. Of the original board of trustees, Irving Grin- nell and William B. Millard are the only two now living. Mr. James S. Roy is president of the institution, and William A. Brewster is the treasurer.
The Wappinger's Falls National Bank, incorporated February 1, 1909, with a capital of $25,000, is a great accommodation to the citizens of Wappinger's Falls and vicinity. Mr. John C. DuBois is president, and William Tanner, cashier.
The following is the succession of Supervisors for the thirty-four years of the town's existence :
1875-'77 James A. Seward 1889-'90 George Wood
1877-'79 James W. P. Lawson
1891 William A. Brewster
1880 Elias Brown 1892 William J. Brown
1881-'84 Isaac O. Norris 1893-'95 William A. Parker
1885-'86 Clinton W. Clapp
1896-'99 James R. Barlow
1887 John P. Monfort 1900-'01 Reginald W. Rives
1888 William H. H. Stoutenburgh 1902 -* 09 John O. Farrell
[The sketches of the village of Chelsea and of St. Mark's Church were con- tributed by William E. Verplanck, Fishkill-on-the-Hudson.]
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
CHAPTER XXXIV. THE TOWN OF WASHINGTON.
BY REV. JOHN EDWARD LYALL.
L OCATION. The town of Washington has a central position in the county. Its territory belonged to the tract known as the Lower, or Great Nine Partners' Patent, which was granted by royal charter to Col. Caleb Heathcote, James Emmott, Henry Filkins, Hen- drick Ten Eyck, Augustus Graham, William Creed, John Aertson, David Marshall and David Jameson.
This fact is stated on page 409 in the first book of deeds, in the County Clerk's office, as follows: "Whereas, by letters patent under the broad seal of the Province of New York, being dated May 27, in the year of our Lord 1697, remaining of record in the Secretary's office in the City of New York, his late Majesty, King William III, did grant and confirm unto Col. Caleb Heathcote and eight other persons in the same letters patent mentioned, all that certain tract of vacant land situate and lying on the Hudson River," then follows a descrip- tion of the tract.
A map of the tract, dated 1734, is also to be seen there, together with a blue copy of it. Both show the divisions into mile-wide strips east and west (and the sub-divisions of each strip), extending from the boundary line between the Province of New York and the Colony of Connecticut, to and including "Fishe Creeke" (now known as Crum Elbow Creek). Then, of course, must be added the nine narrow "water lots" which extend to the river shore, below the mouth of the creek.
At the first organization of Dutchess County by the provincial gov- ernment on November 1, 1683, its divisions were called precincts, and contained much more territory than our towns. This town, with Stanford, Clinton and Pleasant Valley, was constituted a precinct just previous to the Revolution, and was named Charlotte Precinct, after Charlotte of Mecklenburg, who became queen to George III.
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TOWN OF WASHINGTON.
The name Washington was given on March 7, 1788, by the State Legislature when the State was reorganized into twelve counties, one of which retained the name of Dutchess (which then included Putnam). The county was divided into twelve towns and here is the description of Washington :
"All that part of the County of Dutchess bounded southerly by the town of Beekman, westerly by Poughkeepsie and Clinton (now Pleasant Valley), northerly by the north bounds of a tract of land called the Lower or Great Nine Partners, easterly by the easternmost line of lots of the general division heretofore made of the said tract of land called the Lower or Great Nine Partners, shall be and hereby is erected into a town by the name of Washington."
The origin of the name is obvious, but it is not certain that Wash- ington was ever in the town, though the writer has been told many times that he spent a night in a house in Washington Hollow, as he was crossing from some point on the Hudson to his headquarters on Quaker Hill. The town was reduced to its present limits when by an act of the Legislature, March 12, 1793, the northern part was erected into the town of Stanford.
THE PRESENT LIMITS. According to the latest survey, Washing- ton contains a little less than sixty square miles, 36,256 acres, being about eight and a half miles east and west and seven miles north and south. Its general average elevation, from six to eight hundred feet, and the absence of any considerable body of water, give healthfulness, comparative freedom from a humid atmosphere, and render it one of the healthiest sections anywhere to'be found. A study of vital sta- tistics has shown a much smaller mortality among children than obtains elsewhere, and indicates a greater average longevity.
ELEVATION. There are many hills 1000 feet above tide-water, some 1100, 1200 and 1300 feet, and one elevation east of Little Rest 1344 feet high.
INDUSTRY. The industry of the town is almost entirely agricultural, and many of the farms within a few miles of the railroads have daries, carrying their milk daily to the condensing factories or shipping it to the city.
LAND. Some of the land is rough, with the underlying slate very near the surface and cropping out in barren ridges, yet many are the broad valleys and rich plateaus where the soil is equal to any in the county. In the western half of the town the Dutchess slate loam pre- vails, while in the eastern half the Dutchess silt loam is more abundant.
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
At Little Rest and again east of Lithgow there are many acres of Merrimac gravelly or sandy loam, and the same conditions occur both north and south of Washington Hollow. While in the valley of Wash- ington Hollow and extending in a narrow strip so as to include much of the land of John Ham, is the Huntington silt loam. This is almost the only land of this character in the whole town. There is one other patch (say 150 acres) in the extreme northeast of the town, and it occurs along the banks of some streams in narrow strips.
ROADS. Washington has 121 miles of public roads which have a good reputation among those who visit the town, and have for a long time been the just pride of its citizens.
The old Dutchess Turnpike, which was chartered in 1805, crosses the town from Washington Hollow to the east, dividing near Wash- ington Hollow into its north and south branches, the former leading to Amenia and Sharon, and the latter through Little Rest, Dover Plains and on to Kent, Conn.
In 1888, soon after the great blizzard of March 12, the corporation surrendered its charter, gave to the town a deed of its property within the town limits, and its sixteen miles became part of the public sys- tem. The town is also crossed from north to south by the Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad, which was built and equipped in 1869 by the enterprise of George Hunter Brown, whose coming brought so many other things for the development and enlightenment of this and surrounding towns.
STREAMS-WATER POWER. A small but noteworthy stream crosses the town, rising in the hills near Little Rest, where it has an elevation of nearly 800 feet and where there is a gristmill on the farm of Stephen Deuel. (There were formerly two mills in Little Rest.) This mill is one of the oldest buildings in the county, having stood for about two hundred years, and its giant oak posts and floor timbers of the same size, more than a foot thick and wider still, may stand for two hundred years more, so solid is the entire structure.
The stream flows northeasterly toward Mabbetsville, crossing the Sharon turnpike, where for years was the Warner mill, thence to Mill- brook, where are five dams within a distance of a mile, one to form a lake on the estate of Mr. Charles F. Deitrich, another just below it but not now in use as a water power, a third at the fine modern mill built by Mr. Deitrich, a fourth at the milk condenser, and a fifth at
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TOWN OF WASHINGTON.
the mill of the late R. S. Haight. From here the direction is westerly until it leaves the town near the old Bloomvale cotton mills (now in ruins) at an elevation of only 275 feet. This stream, with its 500 feet of fall, once attracted greater enterprises than at present, and now that water power can be transferred, it awaits the genius and enterprise of someone who will use it to furnish electric power to pro- pel electric cars through our town, should we feel the need of such a convenience to connect us with our neighboring State, and with our county seat.
In 1813 there was a fulling mill at Hartsville, built by Philip Hart, who owned 1000 acres and gave existence and his name to the village. Near the same point in 1820 came a plant for cutting dyewoods, owned and managed by the firm of Gifford, Sherman & Innis. About 1837 the firm of Merrit & Haviland bought the water power at Hartsville and built three large cotton mills. Later a silk mill flourished here also, and a spoke factory.
Another mannfactory of the town was established in 1845 by Beriah Swift, just south of the Millbrook Inn, for manufacturing coffee mills. This plant afterward came into the possession of John and William Lane, who did a large business, shipping these mills to all parts of the world. They added to the output of their factory, wheel rakes, door rollers, wagon jacks, plow shares and other small castings, and were doing a large business when they moved their plant to Poughkeepsie and soon after sold the house and farm connected with it to the Mill- brook Inn Co. In 1890 this company soon reconstructed the old house, and with the large additions, transformed it into one of the finest inns to be found anywhere in the country.
TOWN RECORDS. It is not to the praise of those who had the man- agement of public affairs that no records have been kept, back of 1866. There is not a road survey, nor even a list of the town officers, nor any statement of the part which the town took in County, State or National affairs. Any facts of early town history depend upon tradition or must be verified by records of the County, or public documents of the State or Nation.
In 1778 an army of British soldiers, more than 5000 in number, marched across our town as prisoners of war. They were the troops of General Burgoyne, who surrendered to General Gates at the battle of Saratoga in October, 1777. The terms of surrender were that
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
these troops were to embark from Boston to England, under a prom- ise not to serve the King "against the United States during this war."
General Gates sent his report to Congress, instead of to Washing- ton, and Congress did not ratify the terms made by Gates. After a while, therefore, the prisoners were marched from Boston to Charlott- ville, Va., where the most of them were held as prisoners until the close of the war. It was necessary in sending such a number of men across the country to keep them within the lines of the American army, and to do this they must be taken across the Hudson River above the Highlands.
General Washington had distributed his army after the battle of Monmouth along the south side of the Highlands from the Hudson to Danbury, Conn., and at a corresponding latitude on the west side of the river and the prisoners were conducted across Dutchess County, through Amenia, Mabbettsville, Little Rest, Verbank, Ar- thursburgh, Hopewell Junction, and crossed the Hudson River at Fishkill Landing to Newburgh.
Stephen Deuell remembers hearing his grandmother say that she saw them pass through Little Rest, and that they were Hessians. Probably some of them were, as General Burgoyne was assisted by Baron Riedesel and General Specht, who commanded the German troops. Madam Riedesel was among the prisoners, and her diary mentions the principal places through which the captives marched.
In 1866 George Hunter Brown was elected Supervisor, and George Lawton, Town Clerk, and a sense of the value of records seems to have been born with their advent.
ALMS HOUSE. The town is also the seat of the County Alms House. When it was thought wise to separate the poor of Pough- keepsie from the paupers of the townships, David S. Tallman, John Ferris and Albert Emans were appointed by the State Legis- lature on April 7, 1863, to take the whole matter in hand. They sold the old Alms House near Poughkeepsie, bought the present poor farm of Daniel H. Lyons and his wife Hannah, built and furnished an Alms House and transferred the towns' poor to it October 3, 1864. This was a frame structure and served well the purpose for forty years, when the present house was built of brick, with all the modern conveniences, at a cost of more than $60,000, in 1908.
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