The history of Orange County, New York, Part 21

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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Colonel Benjamin Tusten, who was a physician and surgeon by profes- sion, came originally from Southold, L. I., in 1746, at the age of three years. His parents located on the banks of the Otterkill on the patent granted to Elizabeth Denn. His father, Benjamin Tusten, was appointed one of the judges of the courts of the county and also a colonel in the Orange County regiment of militia. The son, Benjamin, was sent to an academy at Jamaica, L. I., and at the age of nineteen returned to Goshen and studied medicine with Doctor Thomas Wiskham. He afterwards

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TOWN OF GOSHEN.

studied in Newark, N. J., and New York City, returning in 1769 to prac- tice medicine in Goshen, where two other physicians. Doctor John Gale and Doctor Pierson, had already located. He was very successful and was widely known as a surgeon. He married Miss Brown, by whom he had two sons and three daughters. In 1777 he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the Goshen regiment of militia under General Allison, and in 1778 was appointed surrogate of Orange County, which office he held when he lost his life at Minisink.

Captain John Wood, of Colonel Tusten's regiment, was captured in the battle of Minisink, his life being spared by Brant, who in the thick of the battle, thought he saw Wood give a masonic sign. Wood was taken cap- tive and transported to Canada. He left a journal of events following the battle which throws considerable light on the life and character of Brant.

On July 22. 1822. by the influence of Dr. David R. Arnell, of Goshen, a monument was erected in the village to the memory of the men who fell at Minisink. It was set up over the bones of the patriots which had been gathered from the battlefield forty-three years after the massacre. On July 22, 1862, a more pretentious monument was dedicated and unveiled, provision for the cost of the same having been made in the will of Dr. Merritt H. Cash, of Minisink.

Goshen village was originally laid out in four lots of eighty acres each. Its original boundaries are not definitely known, as a disastrous fire in 1843 destroyed the town clerk's office, burning up the map of the town and village lots, together with deeds dating from 1714. After these records had been destroyed a new charter was granted on April 18. 1843. fixing the boundaries of the village, which remained under this charter until 1878, when it was abandoned and the village reorganized under the gen- eral act. Goshen was incorporated a town on March 28, 1809.

At one time Orange County embraced nearly all the southern part of New York, bordering on the Hudson River. Courts were then held at Orange Town, now in Rockland County. In 1827 they were removed to Goshen. In 1839 the board of supervisors made application to the Legislature to erect a new court house at Goshen. There was consider- able opposition from the southern end of the county, which was anxious to secure increased judicial conveniences. As a result, the Legislature effected a compromise, making Goshen and Newburgh joint capitals, and

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in April, 1841, passed an act authorizing the building of a court house and jail at Goshen and a court house and cells at Newburgh.

IN THE CIVIL WAR.

· On July 1, 1862, President Lincoln issued a call for 300,000 volunteers, and Governor Morgan appointed a military committee for Orange County. Hon. Ambrose S. Murray was the Goshen member. As a result of this call the 124th Regiment, afterwards famed as the "Orange Blossoms" was organized. During the period of organization it was en- camped at Goshen, where Murray avenue is now located. Enlistments came rapidly and by August 23 it was ready for the field.

The military committee recommended A. Van Horne Ellis, of New Windsor, for colonel of the regiment and he accepted the commission. Henry S. Murray was made captain of Co. B, which was composed of Goshen men. On August 26, 1862, the regiment was presented with a stand of colors by the women of Orange County. Hon. Charles H. Winfield made the presentation speech. Afterwards, on behalf of the women of Wawayanda, Miss Charlotte E. Coulter presented the regiment with a pair of embroidered silk guidons.

On Friday, September 5, the regiment was mustered in and on the following day departed for the front. It fought in many engagements from Manassas Gap to Lee's surrender at Appomatox, and was dis- banded at Washington's headquarters in Newburgh, June 16, 1865, leav- ing a record of 208 service dead and 609 casualties in action.

When the Civil War was at its height and drafts were necessary to supply the depleted ranks of the Union Army, one interesting incident took place at Goshen. The provost marshal general had ordered a draft for the Eleventh District, comprising the counties of Orange and Sulli- van, calling for 1.932 men, with 50% added, making a total of 2,898. This draft was to begin at Goshen on Wednesday morning, October 7. 1863. Trouble was feared by certain of the leading citizens, and they asked that troops be sent to the village to prevent rioting. Accordingly 011 Tuesday evening, October 6, the Fifth Wisconsin Volunteers, under Colonel Allen, arrived in town. The regiment, which originally numbered 1,300, had been reduced by hard service to 450 men. They made their camp on the elevation which is now Prospect avenue, and during the

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night, trained their cannon to cover the points where crowds would gather in case of rioting. The drawing began on Wednesday and lasted until Saturday and there was no serious disorder. The names were drawn from the wheel by Gabriel Coleman, an aged blind man of the village. Orange County's quota was 2,131, and Sullivan's 767. Goshen furnished 62, of whom three were colored men.

A table of military statistics compiled just before the close of the war showed that Goshen had furnished men as follows at the Govern- ment's call : 30 men in 1861; 113 men in 1862; 104 men in 1863; 51 men in 1864.

On Thursday, September 5, 1907, there was dedicated at Goshen a monument to the service dead of the 124th Regiment. The monument, which weighs nineteen tons, is a bronze figure, "The Standard Bearer," designed by Theo. Alice Ruggles Kitson, a noted sculptress. The figure, eighteen feet in height, stands upon a pedestal of Stony Creek granite, fourteen feet high. The monument was presented to the people of Orange County by Hon. Thomas W. Bradley, of Walden, N. Y., Mem- ber of Congress from the Twentieth New York District, in memory of his comrades who died in the service of their country. Mr. Bradley en- listed as a private in the "Orange Blossoms," was promoted to captain, and breveted major for meritorious service, and was awarded the Con- gressional Medal of Honor for gallantry at Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863, when he volunteered in response to a call, and alone, in the face of a heavy fire of musketry and canister, went across the field of battle and procured ammunition for his comrades.

The presentation was made by Colonel Charles H. Weygant, who com- manded the regiment after the commander, Colonel F. M. Cummins, fell wounded. It was accepted for the people by Mr. John J. E. Harrison, chairman of the board of supervisors, a veteran of Co. B. 56th Regiment, U. S. V., who was wounded at Devon's Neck, S. C .. December 7, 1864, and who rendered before and after that time valiant service in the Union's cause. It was accepted also by Captain Robert B. Hock, who was the village president, and was then serving his eighteenth consecutive term in that office. He also had been a soldier with a long and honorable record. He enlisted in the regular army as a bugler, some years before the war, and was assigned to the Tenth U. S. Infantry, and sent to Fort Snelling, Minn. He took part in many expeditions against the Mormons,

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under General Albert Sidney Johnson, afterwards the confederate general killed at Shiloh. Mr. Hock was later sent to the scene of the Mount Meadow massacre and fought in the battle of Ash Hollow under General Hardy. In 1860 he was a pony express rider when Denver was only a tented village. After Fort Sumter was fired on, his old commander Gen- eral Tracy, asked him to drill recruits at Staten Island. He did this and later performed the same service at Washington. In 1861 he was commis- sioned lieutenant of Co. E, 12th New York Cavalry, and in 1863 was made captain of Co. F. He was on the Burnside expedition, at Ball's Bluff and in the second battle of Bull Run. On April 17, 1864, he was taken prisoner at Plymouth, N. C., and confined for three weeks in Ander- sonville, four months at Macon, one month at Savannah, and one month at Charleston. With six brother officers he escaped from prison at Col- umbia, S. C., and was tracked by bloodhounds. All the others were recaptured, but he, after suffering terribly by privation and exposure, reached the Union lines and was cared for by the Third Tennessee, until able to report to General Dix in New York. In 1865 in a skirmish with General Bragg's troops his horse was shot from under him, and he was caught by Bragg's men and sent to Danville, Va. He made a break for liberty and escaped to the brush, rejoining the Union forces just before Lee's surrender. At Bentonville, in a cavalry charge, his horse was killed and he was thrown among the rebel infantry and captured. The same night he escaped, covering himself with dead leaves, and reporting at his company headquarters in the morning. His comrade in rebel prisons, Lieutenant A. Cooper, dedicated a book of his experiences to Captain Hock.

Charles E. Stickney.

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TOWN OF GREENVILLE.

CHAPTER XVII.

TOWN OF GREENVILLE.

BY CHARLES E. STICKNEY.

T HE number of acres of land in the town assessed in 1865, was 18,287, at a valuation of $385.600. Personal property $49.850. The number of acres assessed in 1907 is 17,829 at a valuation of $269,485. Personal property, $19.850. \ loss in 42 years of 458 acres of land, $116,115 in assessed valuation of real estate, and of $30,000 assessed personal property. The town expenses ( town audits ) were $619.37, besides $807 for roads and bridges.

In 1855 the town had a population of 1,218. Ten years later it had a population of 1, 147 ; while in 1905 it had only 672 inhabitants, a loss of nearly half compared with its first-named census.

The name was undoubtedly suggested by the beautiful green summer verdure the eastern part of the town exhibits, lying to the sun on the eastern declivity of Shawangunk mountain.

Its boundaries are : Beginning at the corner of the town of Wawayanda line with that of Mount Hope, thence almost due west along the Mount Hope line to that of the town of Deer Park; thence along the Deer Park town line southwest to the New Jersey State line : thence casterly along the said State line to the corner of the Minisink town line ; thence northeasterly along the Minisink town line to a point on Castle High Hill near South Centerville: thence northwesterly along the town of Wawayanda town line to a corner ; thence northeasterly by north along the said line to the place of beginning.

The first town meeting was held at the house of Jonathan Wood, in Bushville, March 28th, 1854. Bushville then was a village of some impor- tance, but since the near advent of railroads its trade has gone to other places.

PHYSICAL FEATURES.

The oldest village in the town is no doubt the settlement at Smith's Corners. It was situated on the road which leads along the eastern slope

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of the Shawangunk mountain from Coleville, N. J., to Otisville, and in early times was a place of some business. Elijah Smith was its founder about the close of the Revolution. Joseph Smith, justice of the peace (see Minisink civil list), in 1813 was a noted man in his day. After the Goshen and Minisink turnpike road was built, and later when (about 1820) a mail route was established through there, the post-office was lo- lated at a store which stood where the village of Greenville now is. The post-office was named Minisink, because there was somewhere in the State a post-office already known as Greenville, and this was the nearest post- office to the real Minisink west of the mountain. Two churches, a store and a hotel are located there. The village of Smith's Corner has this year of 1907 been made convenient to travel on account of the new macadam road just built throughout it from Slate Hill to Carpenter's Point.

Lake Maretange, upon which one of the great land patents (Evans) cornered in Colonial days, is now known as Binnewater Pond. It covers about twenty acres of land, and is now so filled with aquatic growths and mud that it has less than half of its original extent. It was once reported to be of great depth. It in early times was famous for its excellent fishing. Its original name was undoubtedly an Indian one. The name Binnewater is a corruption of the German Beninwasser (Inland water). Boudinot creek is its outlet.

The great swamps which once stretched north and east of Smith's Corners were known to early records as "Pakadasink Swamp." They have been largely cleared, drained, and are coming rapidly under culti- vation. The Shawangunk Kill whose Indian name was the same as that of the swamp, "Pakadasink" or "Peakadasink," originates from springs in the swamps, and flows northward along the base of the Shawangunk mountain toward Ulster County.

Rutger's creek originates in the watershed south of Greenville village.

EARLY SETTLERS.

Jonathan Wood, justice of the peace as early as 1796, and Timothy Wood (see civil list) resided in Bushville in this town.

John W. Eaton (see civil list) is a descendant of Robert, who came to the town, shortly after the Revolution. Robert had sons, John,

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William, Robert, and Samuel. There was also an Alexander in the town of about the same generation as Robert's sons, who had a son Thomas. John, the eldest son of Robert, had two sons, Gabriel and Daniel H. The latter during the later years of his life, owned the former David Moore farm now owned by William Creeden, in Wawayanda, where he died. Gabriel, during the later years of his life retired from active life to Unionville, where he owned property and where he died. There seems to have been a James Eaton in the town contemporary with Robert. Their farms constituted what was called Eatontown.

Charles Durland of Long Island settled near Bushville in this town prior to 1800, and it is probable that Moses came into the town soon after he did. Moses lived and died in the town, but Charles bought land, about a mile and a half south of Ridgeberry, where he made a permanent set- tlement and died there. Thomas T .. Steward T., Daniel and Addison were sons of Charles. Steward T. and Daniel became residents of Green- ville (see civil list ). Garret, John and George .A. Durland, descendants of Moses, also resided in Greenville. George .\. and Steward T. were justices of the peace for many terms in the town ( see civil list ). Addison settled near Westtown where he died. Thomas T. Durland suc- ceeded to the old homestead near Ridgeberry, and later in life bought the former Phineas Howell farm near Slate Hill, where he died. His widow (whose father, George Jackson, in his lifetime owned the farms now owned by William Ralston, of the lower road) and son George, and daughters Alice L. and Etta H., now reside on the Slate Hill home- stead ; while a son, Charles, resides in Middletown and a daughter, Eliza- beth Van Orden. lives in Pompton Lakes.

John, Joseph and Hiram Manning were early settlers in the town. Joseph's children were Joseph, Jr., John, Isaac, Richard, Walter, Benj- amin, Mrs. Isaac Finch., Mrs. E. Hurlbut, Mrs. John Ferguson. Hiram Manning at one time owned the grist, saw and cider mills at Millsburg. His son. John R. Manning, resides in Gardnersville in Wawayanda, and the latter's son. Hiram. Jr., is in business in Johnsons.

Abraham Elston was a very early settler in the town and many of his descendants are still in it.

Harvey H., Alfred, W. L. and W. W. Clark (see civil list) were de- scendants of the David Clark mentioned in a sketch of the family in the town of Minisink.

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THE COUNTY OF ORANGE.

Under an old school law teachers were formerly licensed by town superintendents which prevailed up to 1856. Geo. A. Durland held the office of superintendent for some time. Samuel S. Graham was elected to the position in 1856, but the law was repealed that year and he was never sworn into office.

CHURCHES.

The Baptist Church of Greenville was incorporated January 27th, 1816. and was supplied by the pastors of Brookfield church until July 31st, 1822, when the church was dedicated as a separate one. It was consti- tuted by thirty-one members. Elder Zelotes Grenell preached the sermon, August 3d. That year twenty-three more members were set off from the Brookfield church to it. Elder Henry Ball was pastor for eleven years. Elder D. Bennet supplied it from Unionville for four years. W. H. Jur- ton, D. Benett, C. Brinkerhoff and Joseph Haughwout supplied it to 1848. Rev. Stephen Case became pastor of it in May, 1848, and continued there to his death in 1895. It was said of him that he married and buried prob- ably more Orange and Sussex County people than any other minister has. He was a son of John and Mary (Mead) Case. The father is alleged to have come from New England, while his mother was a daughter of Ebenezer Mead of near Waterloo Mills in Minisink. John and Mary (Mead ) Case had four sons, Joseph M., E. Inman, John B. and Stephen.

Joseph M. was justice of the peace from 1850 to 1874 in Minisink and held other offices (see civil list) .. The Case homestead was on the ridge west of Westtown where John died in 1844 and Rev. Ralph Bull preached the funeral sermon. His wife died in 1847. Joseph M. was un- married. E. Inman died in 1888. He had five sons and one daughter. John, Jr., Joseph, Ira L., Jefferson, Anson and Amelia. Ira L., became a resident of Middletown and was elected school commissioner of the second district of Orange County for a term. John B. studied for the ministry and became a clergyman of much influence. He died in 1886. He had seven children: John B., Jr., Stephen J., Joseph M., Tisdale, Joshua I., Sarah and Flora.

Stephen, son of John, after his primary studies were over, attended and graduated at Madison University in 1840. He began preaching the next year, and supplied the pulpit of the Orange Baptist Church six

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TOWN OF GREENVILLE.

months. Then he preached for three years in what was called the Broad- way Baptist Church, which we incline to think was located near Wyker- town in Wantage township. N. J., probably the one built by Job Cosad. In May, 1848, he became pastor of the Mount Salem and Greenville churches. He was then about thirty years old, and he labored there for over sixty years until his death. He was survived by three sons : John E .. Joshua, Jr. and Joseph M. Joshua, Jr., is a famous auctioneer residing in Unionville.

The Methodist Church of Greenville was incorporated December 23rd, 1850. There had been preaching for about twenty years before that by ministers of the M. E. denomination. The church edifice was built before the church was incorporated. Rev. Henry Litts, who died a few years ago in Deckertown, was pastor there for some time, succeeding Revs. Andrews, Grace and Rusling.

Besides the cemeteries connected with the churches, there are a number of family burial places in the town; notably those of the Manning, Sey- bolt. Seeley, Courtright, Vanbuskirk, Mulock, Remey and Jenks families.

MISCELLANEOUS.

During the Civil War the town issued in August, 1864, bonds for $25.159 ; they were all paid by February 11th, 1871.

Its officials have from the formation of the town proved worthy men. It has been universally Democratic by a small majority.

Nathaniel Reeves Quick, justice of the peace from 1868 to 1873. was a tall pleasant man, a descendant of the Quick family of Pennsylvania. He was well posted on the history of the famous Tom Quick, who was a member of the same family. The traditions which Mr. Quick, of Greenville, had instilled into his mind from accounts handed down to him by his grandfather, no doubt truthful, were not altogether complimentary to the old Indian hunter. His grandfather said (told by Nathaniel R. himself ), that Tom, when hard pressed for something to eat, would come to his house and stay till the good housewife would absolutely refuse to cook for him any longer, and his grandfather would inform Tom that he must either go to work or leave. That, he said. always started him, for if there was anything in this world that Tom hated it was to work. Then he would shoulder his gun and tramp off in the forest

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for two or three months before he ventured to show himself again at the house. In truth, his grandfather did not put much dependence on the stories told by Tom of his adventures, because he thought Tom was merely whiling the time away with something to wheedle him with, in fact, a sort of "stand off" for lodging.

The old Goshen and Minisink turnpike road of the last century, crossing Shawangunk Mountain just west of Greenville village, was changed by the State to a macadam road constructed or, nearly so, in 1907. It takes a new route across the mountain and has greatly reduced the grade. The Goshen end of the road to Dolsentown was completed a few years ago, and the one from Dolsentown through Wawayanda and Minisink to the State line about two years ago. The new road through Greenville con- nects with the Wawayanda line at Slate Hill.

Of the Tory element in the town during the Revolution, it is tradi- tionally remembered that Brant is said to have, after his first raid in 1778, contemplated a more extensive one. For that purpose he came to Greenville secretly to get information of the surroundings. He hid himself in the Pakadasink swamp below Smith's Corners, and explored the vicinity by night. Certain Tories of the neighborhood were suspected at the time of furnishing food to some tramp in the swamp, and one of them was caught returning from the swamp where he had been to take a portion of a sheep which he had killed, as it was later found out. Ex- citement ran high at once and a party visited his premises and found that he had slaughtered a sheep and had taken a part of it to the swamp to feed a hidden Tory as was supposed. A committee improvised a fife and drum corps, wrapped the bloody sheepskin about him, and marched him at the point of a bayonet on foot to Goshen followed by the music of the fife and drum.

This was on a broiling hot day in summer, and, as may well be sup- posed, that march of sixteen miles, bothered as he was by the flies and the jokes of the people they met, made the victim very uncomfortable. Later when Brant swooped down on Minisink in 1779, he did not cross the mountain into the Greenville neighborhood as the settlers then thought he intended to do at first. Then they ascertained the kind of a tramp that the Tory had been furnishing with mutton in Pakadasink swamp, and re- joiced to think that their prompt action in treating their Tory neighbor to that arrest probably saved their homes from the invasion planned.

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TOWN OF GREENVILLE.

Before the days of railroads the people who lived in these neighbor- loods generally went to Newburgh, and if they desired to go to New York took from thence passage on a sailing vessel for that place. Sometimes the passage occupied three or four days between those two cities, de- pendent on the weather. In windy weather the sloops often had to anchor under some protecting high shore, and in dark nights they gener- ally anchored until daylight. A disaster which made a great sensation throughout the county and elsewhere, happened November 24th, 1824, to a sloop of this kind, near Pollopel's Island, in lower Newburgh bay. The sloop Neptune was on its way up the river under command of its first deck hand, John Decker, the captain ( Halstead ) having been left in New York sick. About twenty tons of plaster were in its hold and about twenty more tons piled on deck, together with eight or ten tons of other goods. There was a strong wind prevailing and the boat was coming up near the island with a double reef in the mainsail and all precautions taken for safety, when there came a sudden blast of wind which caused the sloop to dip and the plaster on deck to shift its weight. This shifting of the deck plaster caused the sloop to dip so violently that the water came pouring into the scuttle of the forecastle, and into the cabin where some ten or twelve women and a number of children were gathered. Besides the crew about twenty-six male passengers were on the deck. Instead of righting. the boat went right down without further warning. All in the cabin were drowned. It was about noon, and several boats that saw the sloop go down hurried to the scene, and were so successful as to rescue seventeen of the passengers.

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The history of Orange County, New York, Part 21

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