The history of Orange County, New York, Part 16

Author: Headley, Russel, b. 1852, ed
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Middletown, N.Y., Van Deusen and Elms
Number of Pages: 1342

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Many friends have made generous donations ; among others Mr. Weeks who, during the past four years, has offered $50 each year as door-yard prizes. A boys' horticultural club has been formed, land rented and a por- tion assigned to each boy who owns all he raises. The two most successful receive prizes. Enough money has been subscribed to meet the ex- penses of this work for five years. The second year of the organization, it lost by death the efficient treasurer, Mrs. Dr. Harrison, and last sum- mer the loved president, Mrs. Lyman Abbott, died beyond the ocean and sleeps in a little German graveyard. The present officers are: Mrs. Ernest Abbott, president ; Miss Cocks, vice-president ; Mrs. Seaman, sec-

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TOWN OF CORNWALL.

ond vice-president; Mrs. Fleming, secretary; Miss Josephine Youngs, treasurer, and Miss E. M. V. McClean, corresponding secretary.

PAPERS.

In 1877 Mr. John Lee, author of stories of the Hudson, started the Cornwall Mirror, but he died within the year. He was succeeded by Mr. Snelling, who changed the name to the Cornwall Reflector. Mr. Pendell succeeded him as editor, when the title was changed to Cornwall Local, the name which it retained when it passed into the hands of the present proprietor, Mr. Goodenough. Three or four efforts have been made to run a second village paper, but they have all proved a failure. Mr. Morehouse started the Courier, which passed into the hands of Creswell McLaughlin, but it came to grief. It was resuscitated in 1905, but only lived a year.

INDUSTRIES.

With the introduction of the mountain water into the village, it was hoped that with the fine freighting facilities, manufacturers might be induced to settle here, but such has not been the case. Several applica- tions have been received from outsiders, but when negotiations reached a certain point, they have been quietly withdrawn, and it has been surmised that some of the wealthier neighbors object to the class such work would bring among them. The stream known as Murderer's Creek, and later on as the Moodna, at one time had several factories along its banks. The late John Orr's flour mill is still in business, and about a mile from Can- terbury is a settlement known as Firthcliff. In 1869 Mr. Broadhead had a large woolen mill there which after a few years, passed into the hands of an English carpet company. These brought many of their skilled employees with them, and they in turn induced friends and neighbors to come out, so that one corner of the town is an English village. The home works are in England, but the proprietors frequently cross the Atlantic to visit their factory here. Still farther down the stream are the mills of John Orr, at a railroad station that bears his name. A piano fac- tory, owned by John E. Ryder has disappeared, and as the brook nears the Hudson, it passes through a valley which was once filled with homes of the work people employed in the Valley Forge paper mill, owned by

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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.

Carson & Ide, and the Leonard linen mill. The latter stopped during the war, but the former under different owners produced some material, until a freshet tore away bridge, dam and race and forced the stream into another channel that left the building practically without water.

VOLUNTEERS.

Mr. Ruttenber gives a list of 172 volunteers who went from here dur- ing the Civil War, but he has omitted three names, Frederick Lamb, Wm. Couser and George Chatfield. Emslie Post contains the names of some of the surviving on its roster, and on Memorial Day they decorate eighty graves of comrades who have passed over to the great majority. But there are others who sleep on Southern battlefields, and still others who passed from the weary anguish of the hospitals to the "low green tent, whose curtain never outward swings." Captain Thomas Taft is probably the youngest surviving veteran; and among the revered names of those "who came not back" stand Captain Silliman, Major Cromwell and William Emslie, who died in Andersonville. Through the efforts of Mr. Charles Curie, of Idlewild, a soldiers' monument has been erected in the village. .

NEW YORK MILITARY ACADEMY.

One of the institutions of Cornwall is the New York Military Aca- demy. In the 'zos it was a large boarding house, capable of accommo- dating two hundred guests. The grounds cover a large plateau, skirting a ravine, and was called Glen Ridge. It was owned by Mr. James G. Roe, brother of the novelist, who when the boarding business failed in Corn- wall, sold to Colonel Wright, who opened a boys' school. He was suc- ceeded by Mr. Jones, who has enlarged the already capacious buildings. There are always over 100 young men and boys in the institution, and a large corps of capable teachers. The discipline is secured more by re- wards than punishments. The pupils, when visiting the village, are al- ways quiet and gentlemanly. Officers from West Point train them in military tactics, and it is marvelous what a proficiency they attain in a few months.

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TOWN OF CRAWFORD.

CHAPTER XIV.

TOWN OF CRAWFORD.

BY J. ERSKINE WARD.

T HIS triangular township, some eighteen or twenty miles west of the Hudson River, is in the northwest corner of Orange County, bordering upon the counties of Sullivan and Ulster. It carries a point of Orange County land well up into old Ulster County and con- tains the northernmost soil of the county.

It is bounded on the north by Sullivan and Ulster, on the east by Ulster and the town of Montgomery, south by Montgomery and Wallkill, and on the west by the town of Wallkill and Sullivan County.

The area of the town, as given in the last report of the Orange Supervisors, is 24.769 acres. Upon this land the Crawford assessors for 1906 placed a valuation of $664,531, and returned personal property of its residents to the value of $15.300. The total tax raised in the town that year was $8.617.89. This amount was made up as follows : General fund. $2.668.14: poor fund, $600; town audits, $2,287.12; roads and bridges, $400 : railroad purposes. $2.107.50; temporary relief. $250; sworn off taxes, $185.45 : treasurer's credits. $115.33.

The name Crawford came from a numerous and respectable family of Irish descent who were among the first settlers of the locality. The land was a part of the original John Evans patent referred to in other parts of this work. When this great tract was set aside the territory of this section was disposed of in many smaller grants to Philip Schuyler and others. Among the many other tracts mentioned in the Crawford titles were the 8.000-acre tract which now includes the village of Pine Bush, and the 10,000-acre tract next on the south. The following sepa- rate patents were included in the Crawford township: Thomas Ellison and Lawrence Roome. November 12, 1750; Frederick Morris and Samuel Heath, January 24, 1736: Jacobus Bruyn and Henry Wileman. April 25. 1722: Philip Schuyler and others, 8,000 acres, July 7, 1720: part of the patent to Jeremiah Schuyler and others, January 22, 1719 ; part of Thomas Noxon's patent February 21, 1737.

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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE."

NATURAL FEATURES OF THE TOWN.

The general altitude of the town is somewhat higher than that of Montgomery. The general surface is a hilly upland broken by high ridges, which extend northeast and southwest. It is in fact separated from Montgomery by one of these elevated ridges known as the Colla- burgh and Comfort Hills, which at times rise 200 feet above the valley. While the land is somewhat more difficult to cultivate because of the stony hills and undulating surface, the soil is very strong and productive, yield- ing fine crops of grass, grain and fruits and responding well to tillage. These slopes and elevations have been found particularly well adapted to the growth of fruit of a superior quality. The proximity of the mountain range is said to have a favorable influence upon the general rainfall of the region. Showers are frequent in summer and the effects of drouth are less severe than in other sections not so favored.

The Shawangunk Kill or river is the principal stream, and it forms the western boundary of the town between it and Sullivan County, and after- ward it also separates the town from Ulster County until the northern limit of the town is reached. This is a rapid flowing stream and affords much valuable waterpower at different points, which has been utilized to some extent in a variety of ways. The early settlers were quick to sce the value and importance of these privileges, and they began to make use of them in their primitive manner at once.

Among the numerous tributaries to the Shawangunk in the town is the Paughcaughnaughsinque. The name is of Indian origin. There are in fact two of these subsidiary streams, the Big and the Little Paugh- caughnaughsinque. They flow northward and afford additional water power at different points.

In the eastern portion of the town is a more important stream known now as the Dwaarskill. This, too, has enjoyed a great variety of ortho- graphic nomenclature, such as "Dwaaskill," "Dwarf'skill," etc. Of course the original was bestowed by the Indians, and, it is said, was given in honor of a Chief of a small tribe which dwelt upon its banks. One of the old settlers in that region is credited with having seen this Indian Chief, who was called "Dwaase," and who had his wigwam near the old turnpike gate No. 3. Others claim, however, that the name is clearly Low or Holland Dutch, and signifies perverse or contrary because it

Joel Whitten.

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TOWN OF CRAWFORD.

flows north. The stream begins somewhere near the center of the town of Wallkill. not far from the Crawford Railway junction, flows through the valley parallel to that of the Shawangunk Kill, and finally leaves the town at the northeast corner.

This town also has its share of swamps, of which the historian Rutten- ber says Orange County has over 40,000 acres. One of these swamps is northwest of the Sinsabaugh neighborhood, and another is southwest of Searsburgh.

EARLY SETTLEMENT AND SETTLERS.

This being among the newer towns of the county, the specific details of its settlement are so blended with the early history of the old Wallkill precinct and that of the town of Montgomery, from which Crawford was set off. that it is quite impossible to separate them for this place.

The Weller settlement was partly upon this territory. Johannes Sny- der started a small settlement in the vicinity of Searsville, where he bought a large tract of land on both sides of the Dwaarskill. He built a primitive log mill there at once, and this is down in the records of 1768 as Snyder's Mill. He seems to have been a man of means and influence, as he also built a log church soon after settling there, which was known as Snyder's Church. This Snyder family was Dutch and made the first settlement here in 1740, if not earlier. All the services in this little church was in the Dutch language, and it is recorded that the church was worn out or outgrown even before the Revolution.

Somewhere about the same time Robert Milliken built a saw mill on the Shawangunk Kill. This is referred to as Milliken's mill in the records of 1768. and this is the earliest mention of a saw mill on that stream in the records. Other mills were built there. however, in later years. First was the old flour mill of Pat. Boice, next below the Milliken mill was thc Sear's grist mill, then Abraham Bruyn's flour mill, and finally Cornelius Slott's saw and grist mill combined. The latter was continued by Arthur Slott after the death of his father, and he soon built a small collection of houses there for his employees. This Slott ancestry were among the oldest settlers in the State. The family came from Holland in 1670, as the family record shows. They located first at Hackensack, N. J., and after a few years there they removed to Rockland County, and soon after that they came to Montgomery and settled on the Tinn Brook at a point after-

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ward known as Slott Town. Cornelius Slott engaged in farming. In 1777, while serving as an orderly sergeant with his military company, in the active defense of Fort Montgomery, he was taken prisoner and con- fined in the old Sugar House, New York, by the British forces for ten months. In 1785, on regaining his liberty, he sold his farm and lived in New York for the next five years. Then he bought the mill site in Pine Bush and erected his saw mill just below the mouth of the Paughcaugh- naughsinque stream. The next year he also built a grist mill. There was no public road leading to his mil! at the time, but he soon secured one from Hopewell.

A small early settlement near Graham's Church was made by Abraham Dickerson, an Irishman, John Robinson and Philip Decker. Philip Decker's ancestors came from Holland. When sixteen years old he drove a team from Ward's Bridge to Valley Forge with a load of corn for Washington's army. Dickerson built a saw mill on a small stream near there which was operated successfully for a time and then fell into decay The portion of the Wallkill valley in this town was the site of the earliest settlement. These old pioneers consisted of Germans, Hollanders and Huguenots. Many of them came from the older settlements in Ulster County, and others were directly from their native land.

Robert Jordan came here from Ireland in 1771. About 1784 he set- tled at Bullville in this town. His brother John seems to have settled there in 1767, having arrived in this country some years ahead of Robert. Among his neighbors there about that time or a few years later, were Joseph Elder, James Barclay, Samuel Barclay, John Martin and Daniel Bull. Thomas Turner was also a land owner in the Bullville settlement to the extent of 300 acres.

In the Searsville neighborhood William Snider was among the pioneers. He purchased a large tract of land there upon which he lived many years before the Revolution. He seems to have been a man of some wealt !: , for at the outbreak of hostilities with Great Britain he buried a consider- able simm of money in a secret place upon his property, the location of which was known only to a faithful negro slave. After the war this negro was awarded by his master with his personal freedom because of his loyalty and faithfulness.

An old apple orchard planted before the Revolution near Bullville, died out long years since. Nathan Johnson was the village shoemaker, going

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around from house to house with his kit of tools strapped upon his back. This occupation was then known as "whipping the cat" for some reason not very clear at this time. Johnson was an old shoemaker who had been employed making army shoes during the war. It was the custom at that period for those cobblers to go about at stated periods and do the family cobbling and shoemaking for the year.

William Jordan, son of Robert, became colonel of the Shawangunk regiment of militia, and he lived under every President of the United States until his death, having voted the Democratic ticket for 66 years.

Benjamin Sears is mentioned in the records as a remarkable man in many respects among the settlers in that region. Coupled with rare native talent he had a most remarkable memory of details. Nothing eve: escaped him when once his mind grasped it. All his accounts were accu- rately kept in his mind. But his education is said to have been very lim- ited. He served as constable in the town of Montgomery during his early life, where he had five brothers from whom there has been a long line of descendants. He also served as sheriff of Orange County for a time. . And the small hamlet of Searsburgh, near the center of the town, on the Dwaarskill stream, was named for him. He established a flour and saw mill there at an early date.

Joseph Elder was of Irish descent and came into this region some years before the Revolution. He lived upon a very stony farm, and it is re- corded of him that being a man of giant frame, robust and vigorous, he would gather up these stones in a leathern apron girded about his loins and carry them to the place where they were used for fence walls, instead of carting them in a wagon. Though also scantily educated, he served some years as magistrate of his town with much satisfaction, being a man of strong common sense and good judgment. He seems also to have been a pioneer pedestrian. the original Weston, apparently : for it is re- corded that on a certain occasion, missing his sloop at Newburgh, which was already out of sight above the Danskammer Point, running with a fair wind, on the Hudson, on its way to Albany, young Elder started off at a rattling pace, with his musket and knapsack, to join his military com- pany at the Capital in time or be denounced as a traitor. It is said he beat the sloop by several hours, though the precise time made is not given.

Dr. Joseph Whalen, another well known Irish pioneer, was among the early physicians practicing his profession in this region. He came at the

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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.

close of the war, settled in this town for a few years, and afterward practiced in Montgomery for over fifty years. It is worthy of note in this connection that in those days no doctor ever expected to collect for his services from his patient in person. The doctor's claim was always presented to the executor or administrator, as the case might be, after the patient's death. There were obvious reasons for this custom then, as there often are even in these later times, but the reader must be left to draw his own conclusions. This noted doctor had a most extensive prac- tice, and he was also a famous horseman and equestrian, owning much fine horseflesh. He even rivaled the celebrated Count Pulaski, the Polish general in the Revolution, who would throw his hat before him on the road while under full speed on his horse and so far dismount as to take it up: Dr. Whalen could take a glass of liquid in his hand, mount his horse, ride away a quarter of a mile and return without spilling a drop.

Daniel Bull was another prominent settler of this region. He canie some years before the Revolution and settled upon an extensive tract of newly cleared land which was rough and stony and had been owned by his father, Thomas Bull, who lived in the old stone house in Hampton- burgh. This land was then valued at $2.50 per acre. In 1780 he married Miss Miller at Goshen, where the bride and groom were snowbound for two weeks of their honeymoon. They had thirteen children and the family became one of the most prominent and numerous in the town. Mr. Bull was a most successful farmer, and he reclaimed a vast acreage of wild land and brought it under good and profitable tillage. He amassed wealth and became a valued citizen, being long regarded as a patriarch of the town. In 1821, the record shows, that fifty-two grandchildren had been born of this parentage, making a family total of seventy-six. All were then alive except two who died in infancy, and on a certain day in June of that year seventy-four members of this noted family were gath- ered in the family homestead near Bullville for a grand reunion. The farm is now owned by Theodore Roberson.

The Crawford family, after which the town was named, were descend- ants of John Crawford, who settled in New Windsor in 1737. The names of John. William, James and Samuel are found upon the old military roll of 1738 for the Wallkill. Robert I. Crawford was a prominent citizen here early in the last century, and he lived near the old Hopewell church.

The Thompson brothers, Alexander. Andrew, and Robert, came from

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TOWN OF CRAWFORD.

Ireland about 1770. They bought 500 acres of land on what became afterward known as Thompson's Ridge, and divided the plot equally among themselves. One of these farms then included the site of the Hopewell church, and all this property has been kept in the Thompson family.

David Rainey was another ante-revolutionary settler in this locality, and he established what was afterward known as the "brick-house farm." near Pine Bush. He erected the first brick house between Newburgh and Ellenville. Although only a boy during the Revolution, he served for a short time in the Continental Army under Clinton. The ancestor of Jacob Whitten was also among the pioneers there.

Among the early physicians of the town were Dr. Crosby, who lived near the Hopewell church and practiced during the early part of the last century ; Dr. Charles Winfield, who lived near Pine Bush ; Dr. Hunter, of Searsville, who later served as school inspector for that time; Dr Griffith, also of Pine Bush, who died in 1855, and Dr. Durkee, who lived a mile south of Pine Bush.

TOWN ORGANIZATION.

The town of Crawford was formed from the town of Montgomery, March 4, 1823. That older town covered such a large extent of territory that it was found inconvenient and expensive to conduct the public busi- ness to advantage. A convenient and practicable arrangement of boundary lines for a division of the town was found possible whereby there might be a central point convenient of access for the citizens of each town. The name Crawford was given in honor of that pioneer family, as before stated, many of its descendants having become so closely identified with the local interests of the region.

The first town meeting was held at the house of Edward Schoonmaker. April 1, 1823. William W. Crawford was then 'chosen the first super- visor ; Oliver Mills, town clerk, and a full list of officials was selected. Every man was authorized to act as his own poundmaster, and every farm was regarded as a pound. A bounty of $25 was voted for every wolf killed in the town, which shows that these hungry animals were still roaming through the forests at that time. At a special meeting held later in the month, $460 was voted to be raised for the support of the poor for

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that year. There were then thirty-nine road districts in that little town, and each district had its accredited roadmaster. But the records are not clear as to the character or extent of the road work done in that early period. Of course every male citizen was required to appear for service upon the road at such time or times as the master of his district would designate, and put in such number of days' work as his property posses- sions called for under the prevailing provisions of the State road laws. The roadmaster was the boss, and if he said the roadway must be highly rounded in the center, a plow was run deeply along each side of the track and the loose mud or dirt was scraped up into the road with hoes or shovels. Then the wagon wheels would throw out this mud during the rest of the year when it was not frozen, where the workers of the suc- ceeding year would find it again, waiting to be scraped back into the road- way. This was the old process of road repair for two hundred years, and there seems to have been general satisfaction with the curious method as far as the records disclose. In fact, the public highways were not re- garded of great importance in those days in spite of the fact that they were the leading if not the only arteries of transportation throughout the country before the advent of railways and cheap water-line shipment. These observations are made in this connection because of the recent dawn of a new era in roads and road work, when the great importance · of public roads and their proper repair and maintenance has at last been more nearly recognized. Very soon these antiquated methods will be among the curious events in history.

When the Middletown and Crawford Railway was projected through this town the sum of $80,000 was raised by the town authorities in aid of its construction. This was in July, 1868. The interest upon this debt has been paid annually since that time, but in 1880 no part of this princi- pal sum had yet been paid. This was a severe tax upon the town which bore rather heavily upon the farmers especially, a class that rarely escapes the lion's share of these burdens of modern civilization. But the railway has been of great value to every resident as a developing factor of that entire region and none now regrets its cost.

VILLAGES OF THE TOWN.

Hopewell .- This village is in the western portion of the town, not far from the Shawangunk River. The name was taken from the old Hope-

TOWN OF CRAWFORD.

well church, which was an offshoot from the Goodwill Presbyterian con- gregation at Montgomery, where the Congregational section had been squeezed out, as it were. They were thus in need of hope at the time, and thus the name "Hopewell" was suggested by some of the more thoughtful members, and it was very promptly adopted for the church name, as it afterward was also for the little village which gathered about it. It does not appear that any important business or mercantile trade was ever conducted there, however. It is merely a fertile farm section where the residents have gathered to make their homes. The postal facil- ities for these people are at Thompson's Ridge, a station on the Crawford branch of the Erie Railway.

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The history of Orange County, New York, Part 16

Author: Headley, Russel, b. 1852, ed Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Middletown, N.Y., Van Deusen and Elms Number of Pages: 1342

Author: Headley, Russel, b. 1852, ed
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Middletown, N.Y., Van Deusen and Elms
Number of Pages: 1342