USA > New York > Orange County > The history of Orange County, New York > Part 11
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Officers during this expedition were : William J. Brown, colonel ; James Low, lieutenant colonel : David Jagger, major; George Weller, quarter- master ; William J. Hathaway, adjutant.
In August Colonel Brown twice offered the services of the regiment for nine months, but the offers were refused by Governor Morgan. He of- fered them again September 17, when they were accepted. Recruiting for
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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.
it was complicated by the efforts of Colonel Isaac Wood to raise an au- thorized regiment of three years' men in the county at the same time, but he stopped after enlisting 272 men, who were consolidated with the 176th N. Y. V. and mustered in November 20th.
Colonel Brown continued to enroll volunteers until February 2nd, when his regiment, known as the 168th, left Newburgh with 750 men, and New York City eleven days later with 835 men. It went to Yorktown, and remained there on garrison duty during nearly its whole term of service. Once a detachment of 140 men under Captain Daniel Torbush was sent with detachments from other regiments up York and Mattapony Rivers, and the Torbush detachment was placed to guard the Richmond road. Here it was attacked by a force of Confederate cavalry, and repulsed them, killing fourteen, and losing one killed, five wounded and two captured. September 16th the regiment was sent to Bridgeport, Ala., and remained there on guard duty until October 14th, when it went back to Newburgh, and was mustered out October 31st. During its nine months of service it lost one killed, eighteen died, thirteen captured and 184 deserters. Its commissioned officers were :
Colonel: William R. Brown.
Lieutenant-Colonels : James Low, James C. Rennison.
Majors: George Waller (dismissed), James C. Rennison, Daniel Torbush.
Adjutant : Wm. R. Hathway.
Quartermasters : James H. Anderson, George C. Spencer. Surgeon : Jacob M. Leighton.
Assistant Surgeon : Edward B. Root.
Chaplain : R. Howard Wallace.
Captains : Wm. H. Terwilliger, Daniel Torbush, James H. Anderson, Isaac Jen- kinson, Bennett Gilbert, George McCleary, Samuel Hunter, John D. Wood, James C. Rennison, Myron A. Tappan, Marshal Van Zile.
First Lieutenants : Nathan Hubbard, Oliver Taylor, Jacob K. R. Oakley, Archi- bald Ferguson, James H. Searles, Lawrence Brennan, James '1. Chase, De Witt. C. Wilkin, Wm. D. Dickey, Marshal Van Tile, George R. Brainsted.
Second Lieutenants : Thomas P. Terwilliger, Isaac N. Morehouse, James H. An- derson, Geo. C. Marvin, Andrew J. Gilbert, Samuel C. Wilson, Paul Terwilliger, Geo. W. Hennion, Daniel Low, Jr., Geo. R. Brainsted, Bartley Brown, Lester Genung.
The 176th regiment, with which Colonel Wood's 272 recruits were con- solidated, was sent to the Department of the Gulf as a part of the Nine- teenth Corps, and was in the Red River campaign in 1864, in General Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley campaign the same year, and in Georgia and North Carolina in the early months of 1865. In the Red River cam- paign it did some fighting and lost many men in killed, wounded and
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THE CIVIL WAR.
prisoners. Of its Orange County officers, T. Henry Edsall was adjutant, Sprague K. Wood rose from sergeant to captain, and Joseph Goodsell from second lieutenant to captain.
The company of cavalry recruited in the fall of 1861 by Morris I. McCormal as a part of Colonel Van Wyck's "Tenth Legion," when it was detached from this regiment was mustered in as Co. C, First Mounted Rifles, and had ninety-five men. The company served three years. Officers were: Morris I. McCormal, captain ; Charles F. Allen, first lieutenant ; Arthur Hagen, second lieutenant ; Ardice Robbins, orderly sergeant ; C. R. Smith, quartermaster sergeant, Captain McCormal resigned in 1862, but re-entered the service in the Fifteenth Cavalry in 1863. Quartermaster Smith and Sergeants James Eaton, Frank Mills and Fred Penney were promoted to lieutenants.
Orange County was represented in the Seventh, afterward Second, regiment of Cavalry, its volunteers being mostly in Co. B. under Captain Charles E. Morton of New Windsor. Alanson Randall, U. S. A., a native of Newburgh, was colonel of the regiment from November, 1864, to the muster out, June 5, 1865. The regiment was also known as the Harris Light Cavalry.
Recruits were obtained in Orange County for the Fifteenth Cavalry in the winter of 1863-4 by Captain Morris I. McCormal of Middletown, and Lieutenant Charles H. Lyon of Newburgh.
The Fifteenth Heavy Artillery's Co. M. was mostly recruited in Orange County in the winter of 1863-4. The regiment was mustered in at Fort Lyon, Va., February 3, 1864, remained there until March 27th, when it went to Beverly Station and was assigned to duty in the Artillery Reserve of the Army of the Potomac, and did creditable service in several bloody battles. When Co. M. was organized its officers were: Wm. D. Dickey of Newburgh, captain ; Alfred Newbatt and Julius Niebergall, first lieuten- ants ; John Ritchie and Robert B. Keeler, second lieutenants. August 15th Captain Dickey was placed in command of the Third Battalion and Lieutenant Ritchie took command of the company, leading it through the engagements in the struggle for the Weldon railroad, in one of which it lost in killed and wounded a third of its men. For the regiment's good work here and in a previous fight at Haines' Tavern it was complimented in the general orders of Meade. Co. M was mustered out in July, 1865. It lost during its year of service three officers and ninety-five privates. The
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promotions were: Captain Dickey to major, Second Lieutenants Keeler and Ritchie to first lieutenants, and Sergeants Joseph M. Dickey and Rie- mann to second lieutenants.
This Seventeenth Independent Battery was recruited in Orange to be a part of Colonel Van Wyck's "Tenth Legion" or 56th Regiment. It arrived in Washington November 1I, 1861, and was organized as an independent battery January 10, 1862. It was first assigned to Casey's, afterwards Peek's division. It also served in the Seventh Corps, then in the Second division of the Eighteenth Corps, at Bermuda Hundred a short time in the Tenth Corps, and when mustered out formed a part of the artillery brigade of the Twenty-fourth Corps. It was in the siege of Yorktown, the battles of Williamsburg, Savage's Station, Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, the siege of Suffolk, and was in action at Petersburg, Dutch Gap, Fort Harrison, Hatcher's Run and Port Walthal. It was in the investment of Petersburg and Richmond. It suffered most severely at Fair Oaks. Its record was good throughout. Its commissioned officers were :
Captain : Peter C. Regan.
First Lieutenants: Eugene Scheibner, Abram Kniffin, Martin V. McIntyre, John S. Bennett.
Second Lieutenants : Abram Kniffin, Charles S. Harvell, Abram Smith, Wm. H. Lee, Edward Kelly, John B. Brosen, Jr.
The First Regiment of Engineers, known as Serrell's, had in its ranks, it was said, 300 or 400 men from Orange County. Its detachments were mustered in between September 10. 1861, and February 12, 1862. The regiment retained its organization until June 30, 1865, when it was mus- tered out, but there were various changes in its composition. It was an important regiment in the engineering part of the service.
Company C of the 98th N. Y. S. V., was mostly recruited in Newburgh in the winter of 1863-4 by Captain James H. Anderson and Lieutenant J. K. R. Oakley, who had been in the 168th Regiment. They went to Riker's Island in February, 1864, aud here consolidation requirements caused Co. C to consist of ninety-five Orange County men under Captain Anderson and Lieutenants Oakley and Sneed, and twenty-four were assigned to Co. I under Captain E. M. Allen. The record of the regiment was one of the best. It fought at Drury's Bluff, Cold Harbor and Petersburg. At Drury's Bluff it saved General Buller's army from a flank attack ; at Cold Harbor it lost in killed and wounded 100 men ; at Petersburg it charged the outer
Jan 2 Benedict
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THE CIVIL WAR.
line of the enemy's works and was almost constantly under fire. Its colors were the first to be planted at Fort Harrison on September 29. 1864, and it was the first regiment to enter Richmond after the evacuation. After the surrender of Lee it was on post and garrison duty in several places, and was mustered out at Richmond August 31, 1865. Of the men who went out with Captain Anderson, thirteen were killed or died of wounds, twen- ty-three wounded, and five died of disease.
MONEY RAISED FOR THE WAR.
The following totals were raised by official action from town taxes, loans, state cash and bonds, for the towns named for war purposes :
Blooming Grove, $60,900; Chester, $54,192.67; Cornwall, $69,200; Crawford, $84,187.12; Deer Park, $242,981.83; Goshen, $83,233.05; Greenville, $54,016.45; Hamptonburgh, $21,000; Minisink, $57,271.62; Monroe, $160,968.65; Montgomery, $57,250; Mount Hope, $62,888.24; Newburgh, $455,637; New Windsor, $48,715.55; Wallkill, $95, 100; Warwick, $201,070; Wawayanda, $51,750.
By the County: From taxes, 1864, $1,800; 1865, $90,649.50; from loans, 1864, $421,000 ; total. $513,449.50.
Towns and County: From taxes, 1862, $31,931 ; 1863, $2,000; 1864, $350.434.95 ; 1865, $257.581.82; from loans, 1862, $31,950; 1863, $35,- 318.70 : 1864, $1.113.761.82 ; 1865, $229,278.41.
From State: Cash, $76,000; bonds, $252,000.53; interest on bonds, $3,473.51 ; other sources, $105.
Full total : $2.384,801.74.
The donations, cash subscriptions and draft exemption moneys, amount- ing to a very large sum, are not included in the foregoing figures.
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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.
CHAPTER XI. TOWN OF BLOOMING GROVE
BY BENJAMIN C. SEARS.
T HIS is one of the older towns of Orange County, lying somewhat northwest of the geographical center. The towns of Hampton- burgh and New Windsor are on the north, Cornwall on the east, Monroe and Woodbury on the south and Goshen and Chester on the west. It covers an area of 21,759 acres.
The title to all the territory of this town conveyed by the various orig- inal patents, upon which rests the deed of every property-holder to-day has been carefully preserved. The names and dates of the first settlers are also pretty fully recorded.
The oldest grant of land seems to be the Mompesson Patent, which is dated March 4, 1709, and confirmed May 31. 1712. This covered 1,000 acres. The next grant in order of time is that known as the Rip Van Dam patent, which is dated March 23, 1907 and covered some 3,000 acres. This was granted to Rip Van Dam, Adolph Phillips, David Pro- vost, Jr., Lancaster Symes and Thomas Jones, each having an equal share · in the tract. This is described as "beginning at a station bearing west 24 degrees north, and 85 chains from the wigwam of the Indian Maringamus, which was on the southwest bank of Murderer's Creek just across the rail- road track from the Catholic Church of St. Mary. The present village of Salisbury Mills is on the east end of this patent so far as the village lies in the town. In the northeast corner of the town on the old county line is the 1,000 acre tract of Roger Van Dam which is dated June 30, 1720, although a portion of this tract extends over into the present town of New Windsor. The next patent was granted to Ann Hoagland, May 24, 1723, and it contained 2,000 acres in the western part of the town. In the southeastern part of the town, adjoining the Rip Van Dam patent. and west of the Schunemunk Mountains was the 2,000 acre grant of Ed- ward Blagg and Johannes Hey, dated March 28, 1726. This valley has been known ever since as Blagg's Clove. West of this was the irregular tract of 2,440 acres granted to Nathaniel Hazzard January II, 1727. This
Benjamin C. Sears.
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was south of Washingtonville. Still further west was the Joseph Sackett 2,000-acre tract, to which 222 acres were afterward added on the south. This patent was dated July 7. 1736, and the tract adjoins the present village of Oxford. Sackett got another grant of 149 acres September 1, 1737, on the west.
On August 10, 1723 a patent covering 2,600 acres was granted to Richard Gerard and William Bull.
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
The surface of this town is varied by the long range of Schunemunk Mountains, forming the eastern boundary, with its level ridges reaching to the height of about 1,600 feet, and the beautiful foothills of Woodcock, Round Hill, Mosquito, Raynor and Peddler. The last two have deposits of magnetic iron ore, which mixed with the ores from other parts of the county was used in making the Parott guns during the War of the Rebellion. The cultivated land is also broken and rolling, some upon quite high hills, whose sides were not cultivated, and are covered with luxuriant blue grass pastures, and along the streams and the lower lands are beautiful natural meadows, which bring their annual tribute of hay into the barns, and add very much to the beauty of the scenery.
The Greycourt or Cromeline Creek runs from Walton Lake by the base of Goose Pond Mountain, through the Greycourt meadows and the picturesque falls at Craigville, through Farmingdale and Hulsetown, and is joined near the Hamptonburgh line by the Otterkill; near Wash- ingtonville by the Tappan or Schunemunk Creek, flowing from Sat- terly's Mills ; also by the Silver stream draining a portion of Blagg's Clove, and furnishing at the old Coleman Mills, the excellent water sup- ply of Washingtonville. The united stream is called Murdner's or Mur- derer's Creek, to which N. P. Willis gave the more poetical name of "Moodna," where it entered the Hudson near Idlewild. These streams have along their bank beautiful natural meadows dotted with fine old trees, and the hill-tops are covered in places with sugar maple and chest- nut trees, making in the early spring time a beautiful picture of varied green, and in the autumn a glorious variety of colors, which, together with the fine apple orchards crowning the hillsides, justifies the name of Bloom- ing Grove.
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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.
EARLY SETTLERS.
Vincent Mathews seems to have been the first settler according to the record. He bought the Rip Van Dam Patent, August 22, 1721, and built a grist mill at the place since known as Salisbury. He named this estate "Mathewsfield." Thomas Goldsmith came next, about ten years later, and he took the Mompesson Patent. He built a house on the north bank of the Otterkill, now known as the "Walnut Grove Farm," near the present Washingtonville. Edward Blagg also settled upon this tract, known as "Blagg's Clove" about this time. Mathews sold his mill to John J. Carpenter, which was turned into a powder mill under a State contract in 1776, when under the kindling fires of patriotism the demand for powder became very active.
In 1753 Jesse Woodhull settled in Blagg's Clove, although he seems to have purchased the Richard Van Dam Patent upon which the Moffatt family afterward settled. Mr. Mathews, the original settler, was an attorney, and took an active part in the early history of the town. He sold 1.500 of his acres to Louis DuBois, of New Paltz, who built a tavern upon it which was kept by Zachariah DuBois in Revolutionary times.
Prior to 1764 the territory of this town was a part of the Goshen precinct. From that time to 1799 it formed a part of the town of Corn- wall. The other prominent settlers of the town are believed to be included in the following list :
John Brewster, Edward, Francis, Isaac, Jesse and Nathan Brewster, Daniel Brewster, George Duryea, Richard Goldsmith, Benjamin Gregory, John Hudson, Henry Hudson, William Hudson, Archibald Little, Tim- othy, James and Solomon Little; James Mapes, and his sons Wines, Jesse, Robert, James, Barney, David, William and Thomas ; Elihu Marvin, a member of the Committee of Safety in 1775, also judge of the county in 1778; Seth, Nathan, James, Jesse and John Marvin, Samuel Moffatt; James and Fletcher Mathews, sons of Vincent Mathews, who was a colonel in the Revolution and a leading citizen ; Thomas Moffatt, member of the Committee of Safety from 1778 to 1794; Josiah, Samuel, Jacob, Stephen and Peter Reeder; Israel, Thaddeus, John, Jesse, Josiah and Samuel Seely, Bezaliel Seeley, Selah Strong, the first supervisor of the town; Major Samuel and Captain Nathan Strong; Nathaniel Sat-
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TOWN OF BLOOMING GROVE.
terly, member of Committee of Safety in 1775, and proprietor of Satterly's Mills in 1765; John and Selah Satterly; James, Nathaniel and John Sayer; Nathaniel Strong, member of Committee of Safety, who was shot at his door by Claudius Smith, October 6, 1778; Captain Jesse Woodhull, delegate to the first Provincial Convention, and member of the State Convention that revised the federal constitution in 1778; Abner Woodhull, George and Benjamin Whittaker; Silas. Reuben and Birdseye Young; Stephen Mathews, Gilbert, Zachariah and John Du- Bois ; Hezekiah, Isaiah, Stephen, Isaac, Paul, Zepheniah, Charles, Aaron, Silas and Jeremiah Howell; Benjamin and Thomas Goldsmith ; David Coleman. Caleb, Joab, Asahel, Micah, Silas, Richard and Jeremiah Cole- man ; Thomas, John, Francis and Richard Drake; Nathaniel Coleman, Daniel Curtis, John Chandler, Henry and Oliver Davenport.
Among other family names recorded are those of Carpenter, Moffatt. Owens, Gregg and Wooley. It is said of the Woodhull family that its ancestry is distinctly traced to the individual who came to England from Normandy with William the Conqueror in 1066.
CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS.
The town of Blooming Grove was organized March 23, 1799, the territory being taken from the more ancient Cornwall township. The name Blooming Grove had long been in use for this part of Cornwall, being the name of the old village which was given to distinguish it from Hunting Grove, a locality then in New Windsor.
The first town meeting was held at the house of John Chandler, the first Tuesday of April, 1799. Selah Strong was then elected supervisor and Daniel Brewster town clerk. Two hundred dollars were raised for the support of the poor that year, and a $Io bounty was voted for each wolf killed within the town. Mr. Brewster served as town clerk for thirty-seven years without intermission. There was little personal politics in those times, and public office was probably regarded as a public trust.
In April, 1830, a part of the town was taken off in the formation of Hamptonburgh. In March, 1845, another small portion was set off to the town of Chester.
Charles W. Hull has been town clerk since 1874, and has just been re- elected, so that his term will be nearly as long as John Brewster's.
The house of John Brewster, at which the town meetings were held,
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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.
1765 to 1799, was kept as a hotel and was said to be the homestead of the Cooper family, upon which is now situated the Blooming Grove sta- tion and post-office.
When the present town of Blooming Grove was formed, the principal center was at Blooming Grove, where the old church was erected, 1759. The first town meeting was held in the spring of 1759, at the house of John Chandler, who kept a general country store here several years pre- vious to this, also at Edenville, near Warwick, taking in wheat and other grain which was carted to New Windsor, ground at the old mill on Quassaic Creek, and shipped to the West Indies and exchanged for sugar, molasses and other products of the tropics, which were brought back to Orange County by the Hudson River to New Windsor, and exchanged again for grain and other farm products. John Chandler purchased in 1793 a small farm, upon which his great-grandson, B. C. Sears, now resides. He was president of the Newburgh and New Windsor Turnpike Co., and of the Blooming Grove and Greycourt Turnpike Co., built by his son-in-law, Hector Craig. He was an elder in the Blooming Grove Church and a large land owner in this part of the county.
The village of Blooming Grove then consisted of the old church and the old Blooming Grove academy, built about 1810, to which many of the students came from the neighboring towns, boarding with the neigh- ·bors about. A part of it was used as a district school until 1857, when " the present building was built upon the old academy site. A blacksmith- shop, kept later by Pierson Genung, a drug store, a cooper shop, the old toll-gate, the country store, and the hotel kept by Benjamin Thompson, where were held the town meetings, general trainings, etc., and the public were entertained, were on this the main thoroughfare from Warwick to New Windsor and later Newburgh. This property was conveyed to Sam- uel.Moffatt, Jr., merchant, by the executors of Rev. Benoni Bradner, and by him to Seth Marvin in 1810, who built a store-house on a lot purchased of Charles Howell, 1810. Blooming Grove now consists only of the old church, the parsonage and the schoolhouse, and half a mile away the station, store and post-office, kept by C. C. Gerow, and the creamery owned by the Sheffield, Slawson, Decker Co.
VARIOUS RESIDENTS.
In 1810, Samuel Moffatt, Jr., having sold his place in Blooming Grove,
Charles R. Bull.
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moved to a new settlement at Washingtonville, building the old corner store, now owned by George A. Owen. Across the highway Moses Ely, the father of the late Dr. Ely, of Newburgh, had a tannery, and John Jaques, then a young man, opened here a shoe-shop. The old corner store, built in the woods almost, there being only two other dwellings, (a log house owned by James Giles and the private school of Jane Sweezey ), was carried on by Samuel Moffatt and his son David, either alone or as members of the firm, from 1812 to 1832; then John S. Bull, 1832-1839; Walter Halsey and Apollis Halsey, 1839 -- 1850; and the Warners and Wil- liams Howell. 1850 to 1890, and George A. Owen, 1890, to this date. This store has always been, and is still, a prominent landmark in Washington- ville. In 1813, Jedediah Breed came to Washingtonville from Dutchess County, and built a harness shop adjoining the dwelling house now owned by his grandson, George A. Owen, and which has been occupied as a har- ness shop for nearly 100 years. Here Henry F. Breed kept the Blooming Grove post-office for forty years, nearly continuously : after his death the post-office was removed to the building of Alexander Moore, where, in 1872, the name was changed from Blooming Grove to Washingtonville.
Alexander Moore and his brother-in-law, Albert G. Owen, the father of George A. Owen, carried on a furniture and paint business here from 1830 to 1850, Moore being the postmaster and Owen, supervisor and justice for many years, and a member of the Assembly, 1849-1850. This village soon grew to be important, and is now one of the finest villages of its size in Orange County, having a beautiful shaded avenue of maples and many handsome residences. There are the Presbyterian and Methodist churches, Catholic Church of St. Mary, and the beautiful Moffatt Library. given to the village by David H. Moffatt, of Denver, and erected under the careful supervision of John Newton Moffatt. having a fine collection of books and a beautiful hall which is the convenient center for much social enjoyment ; the large feed mill. originally built by David H. Mof- fatt. the father of David H., and now carried on by the Thomas Fulton Co., together with a large coal and lumber business ; a similar establish- ment carried on by Hector Moffatt & Son, and the very large wine vaults of the Brotherhood Wine Co., successors to the Jaques Brothers' Vineyard established in 1838. The Bordens also have here a large creamery, and there is also the Farmers' Creamery, now operated by the Mutual Milk and Cream Co., making this the most important station upon the Newburgh
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Branch of the Erie Railroad. It is surrounded by beautiful homes and thrifty farms. Within the corporation line are the home and farm of Wil- liam H. Hallock, who owns several of the old ancestral homes throughout the town, which he has improved, and still runs with great business ability ; also the ancestral homes of the Brooks family, descendants of Fletcher Mathews, one of the original settlers, and also the old Nicoll homestead, now occupied by Charles Nicoll.
Northwest of Washingtonville is the old Joseph Moffatt homestead, now- held by his grandsons, C. R. Shons and S. L. Moffatt, who have beautiful orchards, which, with that of Jesse Hulse, crown the beautiful hilltop and have made "Blooming Grove apples" famous both at home and abroad; also the Walnut Grove farm, upon which the first Gold- smiths settled, and made famous by Alden Goldsmith and his sons, James and John A., now in the hands of the widow of John A. and her husband, Mr. O. B. Stillman ; also the home of the late Captain Thomas N. Hulse, so long and so favorably known years ago to all travelers upon the Hudson River, now the home of his niece, Mrs. James A. Knapp, daughter of Benjamin Moffatt. Two and a half miles east of the village of Washingtonville is the village of Salisbury Mills, the oldest settle- ment of the town, where, on the falls of Murderer's Creek, Vincent Mathews built his mill, which later was owned by Captain Richard Cald- well, by Peter Van Allen, by Isaac Oakly, and is now the Arlington paper mills, owned and operated on a very large scale by Henry Ramsdell. Here in 1803 came John Caldwell, and with him his three sons, John, Andrew J. and Richard. Richard, then a mere lad, had been at the head of a company in the Emmet Rebellion, and through the clemency of Lord Cornwallis his sentence of death was commuted to banishment for himself and his father's family. He came to Salisbury with his father, and in 1808 married a daughter of John Chandler. He had the mill and a store at Salisbury. When the war with England in 1812 became a certainty, Richard Caldwell raised the 25th Co. Infantry of soldiers, was elected their captain, and led them toward Canada, crossing Lake Cham- plain in open boats, in a severe storm. He divided his extra clothing with his soldiers, and contracted a severe cold, resulting in pneumonia, and he died December 11, 1812, and is buried at Champlain, near Platts- burg. His name is perpetuated by the beautiful monument erected in Salis- bury Mills by his nephew, Richard Caldwell, to his memory and the mem-
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