USA > New York > Dutchess County > The history of Dutchess County, New York > Part 43
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The first Superintendent of County Poor was Edgar M. Vande-
JOHN M. HAM.
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TOWN OF WASHINGTON.
burgh, who held the office for six years, his successors and their terms of office being as follows: Walter Woddell, six years ; Charles LaDue, three years; D. S. Tallman, three years; James Russell, six years ; Myron Smith, nine years; Isaac N. Carman, twelve years.
VILLAGES-HARTSVILLE. The villages that are, and have been, are Hartsville, now a part of Millbrook, where is the greatest fall in the brook, before mentioned, and where the manufacturing interests of the town chiefly centered. There is a picturesque gorge here, not easily seen from the highway, which is well worth a visit both below and above the Daheim mills.
MABBETTSVILLE was at first called Filkintown, after one of the Nine Partners, because, it has been said by a former historian, he presented the inhabitants with a barrel of rum. Its present name was from one of the most prominent families of early times. If history's trage- dies could teach temperance, Mabbettsville would have a history worth preserving. The late John Comstock, when an old man, once told the writer that he had recalled the young men, whose lives had been blighted and destroyed by strong drink in connection with the Mab- bettsville tavern and the cider press which long thrived there, and said, "I can count more than three hundred young men whose lives have come to a sad end before they had lived out half their days." Truly "Wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging and whoso is deceived thereby is not wise." No wonder John Comstock was a strong advocate and liberal supporter of the temperance cause.
But Mabbettsville has had better things. Here a union Sabbath School was formed in 1867, which prospered to such an extent that through the liberal gifts of the inhabitants and the large benevolence of George Hunter Brown, a beautiful chapel was built at a cost of more than $11,000. It was a branch work of the Millbrook Re- formed Church, and continued for years to be an uplifting influence to all that region until the rise of Millbrook so near to it, and the establishing of several churches there, when it seemed unnecessary to continue the services longer, and the chapel was removed, with the intention of having it do duty to a better advantage elsewhere.
LITTLE REST probably owes its name to the fact that in the days which antedated railroads, when there was a very large passenger and produce traffic by wagon between the Hudson River and Connecticut, the wagons and stages which had no accommodations at this point for
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
spending the night, were accustomed to stop here briefly to water and rest the horses and oxen.
LITHGOW probably owes its name to some Scotchman, whose memo- ries took him back to his ancestral heath. It is a small hamlet near the eastern line of the town, and contains a Methodist Church, and a Protestant Episcopal Church which is one of the oldest churches of that denomination in the State. It antedates the organization of the diocese of New York and existed under royal charter, and its first services were held in private houses.
One of the Nine Partners gave the land upon which the first church building was erected, in 1834, which was burned on March 22, 1880. A new building was consecrated August 4, 1881. A rec- tory stands by the church, in which the clergyman lived, who also had charge of the work in Millbrook, until Grace Church in that village became the far more important part of his parochial duties.
A short distance east of Lithgow is the home of Isaac Smith Whea- ton, which is interesting because of its age, its construction and some items in its history. It was built about 1760 by David Johnston, a Scotchman, who had attained success in business and eminence in public affairs. The ceilings of the lower story of the house are twelve feet high and quite in contrast with all American houses of that period. Johnston was a slave holder, and there is tradition that he owned thirty slaves.
Isaac Smith bought the property in 1813. He was also a slave holder, at least his father's will, dated June 26, 1794, contains the following: "I do give to my sons, Platt Smith and Isaac Smith, to be divided equally between them, all my real estate * also * all my negroes." In 1821 Homer Wheaton, just graduated from Hamilton College, came to Lithgow as tutor to the children of Isaac Smith, and afterward married his daughter Louisa in 1830. They were the parents of the late Judge Charles Wheaton, who was the father of the present owner of the place. Homer Wheaton became a priest of the Episcopal Church. He was rector of St. Peter's, also of Christ Church, Poughkeepsie; later he became a member of the Roman Catholic Communion.
WASHINGTON HOLLOW (in earliest times known as Pittsburg), is on the line dividing Washington from Pleasant Valley and will more properly be spoken of in the history of that town, though it has
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TOWN OF WASHINGTON.
been associated in thought with Washington, whose citizens have had a large part in all that pertained to the business and the public func- tions of that hamlet.
The Dutchess County Agricultural Society was founded at Emigh's Hotel-the building is now used as a residence by George Badgely- in 1841, where a meeting was called by the County Clerk and the first officers were elected. President, Henry Staats, of Red Hook; Vice-presidents, John Wilkinson, Union Vale; Thomas Swift, Amenia ; Stephen Thorn, Fishkill; Treasurer, George Wilkinson ; Secretaries, Obediah Titus, Washington, and Edgar Sleight, Fishkill. In 1852 the Society permanently located its grounds in Washington Hollow, and spent $2,000 in buildings and other improvements.
Very near to Washington Hollow is the spacious residence of John Ham, at the present writing Clerk of Dutchess County, who, with his cousin, Eugene Ham, is a descendant of Conrad Ham, one of the earliest settlers in this town. The old house, built by his great- great-grandfather, still stands on a lot adjoining the present home of the family.
SOUTH MILLBROOK was formerly known as "The Four Corners," and "Washington Four Corners" was one of the earliest hamlets of the town. It became Washington, N. Y., in 1869, when the United States postoffice was moved to that point from Mechanic, which lies about half a mile east of it on the turnpike.
This name wrought great confusion in the minds of many postal clerks apparently. The writer has seen in the postoffice here, letters addressed to President Cleveland, in the days of his administration, and to his sister, Rose Cleveland, because some careless clerk had read "D. C." as Dutchess County instead of District of Columbia in the address. Mail for many another "Washington" often came to this office. When, therefore, some of the patrons of the office, in or about 1892, petitioned the Postoffice Department to change the name to South Millbrook there was a ready compliance.
Here the Millbrook Reformed Church had its beginnings in a Sun- day School, started by George Hunter Brown, in October, 1864. The Sunday School was first held in the district school house; then in the house of Samuel Briggs, the village blacksmith.
A public circulating library was soon established which numbered, with additions, about five hundred volumes.
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
Early in January, 1865, a meeting was called to consider the sug- gestion of Mr. Brown that a church be erected. Plans of a building were presented at an adjourned meeting, which were afterwards adopted. Franklin Sutton, present at the meeting, gave an acre of land, and on April 1, 1865, ground was broken and the work of build- ing begun under the superintendence of Samuel Thorne. The corner stone was laid in early June.
In October, 1865, an evening school was organized which was well attended and gave opportunities to some who had passed the school age, to further train their minds.
A lecture course was also established and some of the first lecturers of the times came to speak, among them Bayard Taylor. Rev. J. L. Zabriskie, who came on invitation at the beginning of the work, and who laid the corner stone, resigned in November, 1865, and Rev. H. N. Cobb followed as stated supply until October, 1866, when he was installed pastor of the church.
The church was dedicated June 20, 1866. July 24, those who had thus far been a part of this religious enterprise were organized into a church by the Classis of Poughkeepsie, and became a part of the Re- formed Church in America with fourteen charter members.
For a long time this church furnished, in its basement, the only public hall in the vicinity, and was the center of every active effort for religious, educational and moral betterment.
Dr. Henry Cobb remained pastor until May, 1881, when ill health caused him to resign. Rev. J. E. Lyall accepted a call and was in- stalled pastor November 11 of the same year and has continued until the present writing.
The charter members of this church were George Hunter Brown and Rachel his wife, John Swezy and Sally Ann his wife, John S. Gil- bert and Maria Louise Stockholm his wife, Matilda E. Van Zandt, wife of Rev. H. N. Cobb, Andrew J. Ketcham and Sarah his wife, David Dickson and Agnes his wife, Elizabeth Germond, Anna Maria Wright, Jane T. Haviland.
This church carried on active and efficient work at Mabbettsville as above stated, and at Bloomvale, where a beautiful chapel was built, to care for the employees of the Bloomvale cotton factory. Captain B. F. Pond, who was an elder in the church, began with a Sunday School, which grew to such an extent that a chapel was necessary.
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TOWN OF WASHINGTON.
Then George H. Brown came to the front and with characteristic generosity gave more than $10,000 to build and furnish a house of worship. The land was donated by Mr. Pond, who was superinten- dent of the school. The corner stone was laid in October, 1868, and it was dedicated June 24, 1869. The first communion service was held on Sunday afternoon, July 4, 1869, when eleven persons were received as members of the Millbrook church. At this time the work was so enlarged as to require an assistant for the pastor, and an invita- tion was extended to Rev. A. P. Stockwell to take up the work. Again Mr. Brown came forward and generously met all the extra expense for salary and for a residence for the assistant pastor. Mr. Stock- well remained until 1872, and was succeeded by Rev. J. Hill, who remained until 1875.
Another branch of the South Millbrook church was started at Lit- tle Rest. This was a union effort, but whatever has been done has been chiefly by the pastors of the Reformed Church.
Early in 1893 Halcyon Hall was built as a summer hotel by H. J. Davison, Jr., and his wife Marie Weed Alden, a granddaughter of Thurlow Weed. This beautiful building, complete in all its appoint- ments, was used as a summer hotel for eight years, but not succeeding as a financial proposition, it stood vacant until 1907, when the prop- erty was purchased by Miss May F. Bennett, who has remodeled its interior and moved into it her school for girls. This school was founded at Irvington, N. Y., in 1890, and has been a gradual develop- ment. Last year its pupils were one hundred and eighteen in number and represented nearly every State in the Union.
The school has an executive staff of sixteen and the faculty num- bers twenty-one. It offers thorough physical as well as mental training carefully adapted to the individual, and seeks to inculcate high ethical ideals, a sense of personal responsibility and love of truth.
The course of study covers a period of six years, the first four cor- responding to the ordinary high school course, no student being ad- mitted to the two higher classes who is not a graduate from a good preparatory school. One-third of those who enter the school are in this course, which offers unusually fine opportunities for the study of music, art, literature, history, economics, ethics, domestic arts and sciences. This fine school adds much to the life and pleasure of the community in many ways and promises to become more and more a real, a vital part of our historic development.
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
MECHANIC, which is now no more than a name, was for a long time the busiest place in the town and a mart for a much larger territory. Now most of the houses have been torn down. No store has been there for more than forty years. When it received the name of Mechanic is not certain, and the reason for it is only surmised by those who say it was because of the blacksmith, wagon maker and carpenter shops there situated and the number of skilled workmen who lived there. Be that as it may there is much more to remember about Mechanic. This was one of the earliest settlements in this part of the county. Between 1724 and 1750 this was the center of a settlement of "Friends." Hither came the Thornes and the Tituses from Long Island; from Nantucket came those bearing the names Coffin, Mitchell and Pinkham; from Westchester County, Rhode Island and other parts came the Comstocks, Allens, Rogers, Hulls, Colemans, Willetts, Congdons, Haights, Havilands and Talcotts. Most of these names are yet here, many of them having numerous representatives.
Until 1774 the Dutchess County Friends belonged to the Purchase monthly meeting, in Westchester County. Then the Oblong monthly meeting was established and meetings were held alternately at Ob- long and Nine Partners. In 1769 Nine Partners was set off as a separate monthly meeting, which has continued for one hundred and forty years.
The Friends in this settlement had their own local meeting at a much earlier date, and erected a log meeting house upon the spot where the present building stands. This first building was destroyed by fire December 27, 1778. A committee was appointed on April 16, of the following year, to prepare plans for a less perishable building 40 by 50 feet at an estimated cost of £600. The result was that in 1780 a large brick meeting house was built and stands today a monument to the thoroughness and skill of those who did the work. The brick were made a short distance directly south of the building on the farm now known as Altamont Stock Farm, which is the prop- erty of G. Howard Davison. The bricks are said to be very hard, and the mortar in which they are laid is harder still.
In this building for more than a century and a quarter the Friends have met on the first and fifth day of each week to commune with God and help one another in the struggle against evil. Throngs once gathered there and filled the entire space of floor and gallery, but at the present time only one side of the lower floor is used.
Built 1780.
FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE, MILLBROOK, N. Y.
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TOWN OF WASHINGTON.
At Mechanic for a long time was the only postoffice in the town and it was called "Washington." About 1760, Samuel Mabbett, a Friend, came to Mechanic, opened a small store and an inn to accom- modate the many passing travelers who went to and fro between New England and the Hudson River. In 1762 he bought ten acres of land of Isaac Thorne, built a large house 40 by 50 feet, two stories high, formed a stock company of which he was manager and prin- cipal owner. The building served as store, inn and dwelling and was called the finest building in this part of the State. He did a large business. While the postoffice here was Washington, and the village at that time may have been called Mechanic, and the Friends' Society was known as Nine Partners, the store was known as "Mabbett's," and was so prominent a part of the life of the settlement as to threaten supplanting the other names, and this has led some to confuse it with Mabbettsville, which probably received its name later.
Mr. Mabbett was a Tory and belonged to the band who had for their motto "Loyal and Determined." He was not always as safe from violence as one might suppose he would have been in a Friends' settle- ment. However, many travelers were passing through and it is said he had reasons to hide himself at times in an excavation made for the purpose which was entered by a trap door. At the close of the Revo- lution, Samuel Mabbett moved to Lansingburgh, N. Y., and his son, Joseph, took the property and continued the business until 1795.
William Thorne, great-great-grandfather of the present owner of Thorndale, was one of the first settlers at Nine Partners and was a merchant and large landholder. He became successor to the business of Mabbett though his store was on the south side of the turnpike, and he and his brother Isaac were probably competitors with Mabbett be- fore 1795. From that date this store became a noted depot of supplies for all the country round about.
Mr. Thorne is said to have been very thrifty, with good business judgment, of sterling integrity and having a keen sense of humor.
BEGINNING OF THE FAMOUS NINE PARTNERS BOARDING SCHOOL. Joseph Mabbett sold his store and two acres of land to a committee appointed by the Friends' Yearly Meeting. This committee consisted of Isaac Thorne, Tripp Mosher and Joseph Talcott, and the purpose was to establish a boarding school. The building was altered and enlarged to ninety-nine feet in length and a school was opened in the
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
autumn of 1796, with Tripp Mosher as superintendent, and Jonathan Talcott as principal.1 The school gave a thorough academic course and usually had about one hundred pupils. Land was added from time to time; a $10,000 endowment fund was secured, and the school greatly prospered until 1828, when the unfortunate separation took place on account of differing religious opinion in the Friends' Society. One of its first pupils was Jacob Willetts, who became principal at the age of nineteen, and made it famous by reason of his teaching abilities, and by the text books of which he was the unproud but famous author. Willetts' arithmetic passed through many editions and was widely used in the schools of the country. Older men and women in all walks of life will remember some of its quaintly expressed prob- lems. One is selected from a little leaflet recently issued by Joel Ben- ton :
No. 16. When first the marriage knot was ty'd Between my wife and me My age was to that of my bride As three times three to three. But now, when ten and half ten years We man and wife have been, Her age to mine exactly bears As eight is to sixteen. Now tell, I pray, from what I've said, What were our ages when we wed?
Ans. Thy age when married must have been Just forty-five thy wife's fifteen.
He also published a geography and atlas which is said to have been more accurate than any which preceded it. Joel Benton states that this geography passed through at least thirteen editions, which fact speaks of the favor in which his method of teaching geography was held, and of the length of time it held friendly place in the edu-
1. The following extract will be of interest and is taken from the journal of Martha Routh, a Quakeress minister from Manchester, Eng., formerly teacher of a girls' select school in Nottingham, Eng. :
"15th of 6th mo., 1796. Attended the monthly meeting at Nine Partners. Next morn- ing we sat with a committee appointed to have care of a boarding school in that yearly meeting, for which purpose Friends have purchased a large house.
Feeling interested in the undertaking, I offered to return and render any assistance in my power, which seemed to be gladly accepted.
18th of 6th mo .- On Seventh Day morning we returned to Nine Partners. Spent about. four Hours with Friends, in reviewing the house before mentioned, and making such re- marks as occurred, which were taken down for further consideration. We left them in the evening with unfeigned desires for the prosperity of the school."
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TOWN OF WASHINGTON.
cational world. Chronological cards for teaching facts of history and the times of their occurrence was another device of Jacob Willetts for attracting the attention of the pupil, and instructing him and amus- ing him at the same time. Mr. Willetts' wife was scarcely less famous than her husband. She was born in Marshfield, Mass., August 23, 1788, and was a lineal descendant of John Rogers of early colonial fame.
She came to the school at sixteen, and after two years' study was thought capable, and was made principal of the girls' department when only eighteen years old. She was a famous mathematician and once successfully calculated an eclipse. Jacob Willets married Debora Rogers in 1812. The winter after their marriage they taught a private school near Pine Plains and the next year assumed their old positions as principals in the Mechanic boarding school. They were induced, says Mr. Benton, by an attractive offer to go to Nantucket for three years in 1819, but again came back to Nine Partners, where they re- mained until the separation, when he built a school of his own near Mechanic.
At the separation in 1828 he and his wife were sympathizers with what was called the "Hicksite" branch. It so happened that the school board belonged to the Orthodox, while the principal leaders in the meeting house were Hicksites. In the separation, therefore, it was quietly permitted that the "Orthodox" take the school and some of the land, and they afterward built a meeting house for themselves, while the "Hicksites" continued in the brick meeting house and took a portion of the land, including the cemetery.1 The orthodox school,
1. This meeting house la without adornmenta within and without. No paint was ever put on the inside and the columns which aupport the gallerlea show the marks of the axes by which they scored and hewed the logs. The wooden benches, with atraight backs, show plainly by the many Initiala and names cut on them that boys in early days knew how to amuse themselves with a jackknife when not Interested in the apeaker or his mea- aage. The same box atovea with wrought iron lega, which were put up In 1780, seem to be doing good duty yet and atand on brick foundations in the middle of the room. There were until a few years ago many foot atovea, which were filled with live coals from the stovea and then placed under the feet, for the sake of warmth and support. The build- ing and land, including the cemetery, were transferred by deed on December 29, 1897, to the Nine Partners Burial Ground Association for the purpose of Improving, extending and preserving this property so closely connected with the history of the town. It was a law of the Frienda Society that no monument nor headstone over twelve Inchea high ahould be placed at the gravea, and many bodlea'which have alept long are without any mark aa to their resting place. The Burlal Association has an endowment which pro- vides an income for the care of the grounda. The president, Mr. C. V. Wintringham, and other officers have been efficient in bringing the fund to respectable proportiona and the whole property into a fine state of order.
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THE COUNTY OF DUTCHESS.
however, did not prosper as it had done and requested Jacob Willetts and his wife to assume control again. He accepted the invitation for two years and then went back to his own school, where he con- tinued until 1856, when he gave up teaching and resigned to take the rest earned by an active and pre-eminently useful life.
Mr. Willetts' house was for a time a station of the "Underground Railway," which furnished transportation for slaves who had escaped from bondage in the Southland. His daughter, Mrs. F. T. Carpen- ter, told the writer recently that she remembered that a slave was kept over night in her father's house and was carried next day to the home of David Irish on Quaker Hill.
Stephen Haight was a more active helper of fugitive slaves. His daughter, now Mrs. Susan Merritt, states that slaves frequently were brought to her father's house (sometimes one, and oftentimes two or three at once) where they were sure to find safe hiding, food to eat and money to assist them. They were sometimes hidden through a day in a barn. When the darkness of night fell, they were taken to Val- entine Hallock's home, on the Hudson River, south of Poughkeepsie. This good "Friend" kept them through another day, rowed them across the river next night and forwarded them to the next station en route for Canada via Buffalo. These fugitives carried written directions of friends, somewhere in their clothing, which gave warning also of suspected danger.
The "Orthodox" school went on with varying success until 1850. The yearly meeting then made the mistake of voting to "exclude non- members." From this date its usefulness was greatly impaired until it finally closed in 1863, and two years later the property was sold to John D. Wing. The endowment fund was transferred to the Union Springs Academy, which had been established in 1857, and this school now known as Oakwood Seminary, is the successor of Nine Partners school.
Among the pupils of this once so famous school were Lucretia Mott, whose maiden name was Coffin, and Gould Brown, the grammarian. Others who gained their education at this school, who are still with us, are F. C. Tompkins and his daughter, Mrs. Clark Haight, Wil- liam Henry Tompkins, George Titus, Mrs. Joseph Sisson, John H. Clement, David Stringham, Cromline Dean, and many others whose names have not come to the writer's ears. A catalogue of 1858 states
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