The history of Orange County, New York, Part 23

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

USA > New York > Orange County > The history of Orange County, New York > Part 23

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At Campbell Hall Junction four railroads center, the Ontario and Western, the Central New England, the Wallkill Valley Division of the N. Y. C. & H. R. and the Erie, while the Lehigh and New England runs through the eastern part of the town from north to south, with stations at Hamptonburgh, Girard and Burnside, thus making this small town of more than proportionate interest in the county.

There are six rural schools and one church now in the town. This is the Presbyterian church at Campbell Hall, where also are the stores of Alexander Brothers and C. B. Howell, a meat market, a creamery and a blacksmith's shop, and the surrounding houses with neat lawns make an attractive hamlet.

The two-room schoolhouse stands in a grove of oaks on a hill over- looking the Otterkill where the old church stood before it was moved to Hamptonburgh proper. Now that building stands empty and only the graveyard tells the old story. The name Campbell Hall came from a Colonel Campbell who lived there. His house was back of what is now the Bertholf house. "Col. Campbell was a Scotchman, the father of Mrs. Margaret Eustace, who was the mother of Gen. Eustace of the Revo-

The Bull House, Hamptonburgh, Erected 1722.

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Intionary army of France, both of whom, we believe, died in the vicinity of Newburgh thirty or thirty-five years since." (Eager in 1810-7.) In speaking of Mrs. Eustace he notes her dignity of manner when she re- sided at Campbell Hall; also of her husband, Doctor Eustace, who was from the South. He says there was a secret not fully understood which embittered the last years of her life and her father's.

Campbell Hall owes much to Mrs. Matilda Booth Gouge. Her hus- band. Mr. George Gouge, conducted a large creamery business there for years, and on his death he left his widow more than comfortably pro- vided for. There were no children and Mrs. Gouge did many kind things for her neighbors before her death. She gave the ground on which the church was built and a large house for a parsonage close to the church. She aiso educated a colored man for the ministry. On her death she willed her large residence with its furniture for a more comfortable home for the pastor and her farm of 100 acres to the church with $5,000 in bonds. Most of the buildings in the village are built on land purchased from her. Her birthplace was near and is now owned by Mr. C. B. Howell.

Burnside has a sawmill, a store and a Borden's creamery. Post offices are in each place and the R. F. D. comes out from Montgomery. This closes the helpful public activities of the town, but fine hotels, with bars, make an addition not to be omitted. It is impossible to follow closely all the different family fortunes of those who make the records of to-day ; our allotted space is too small.

There are two of the original grants on which the descendants of the patentees are still living. These are the Richard Gerard and William Bull grants.

The one of 2,600 acres was dated August 10. 1723, on which, by a mis- take of calculation, the carpenters erected the first wigwam in 1712, fol- lowed by the William Bull stone house.

The second grant lay partly in Wallkill, partly in Hamptonburgh, di- vided unevenly by the Wallkill River. William Bull, Esq .. the great- great-grandson of the first one of the name here, lives upon the western portion, and the stone house known as Hill-Hold on the eastern part. be- longs to the descendants of the third son of William Bull-Thomas Bull, Robert McLeod Jackson and Margaret Eleanor Jackson and their mother. Margaret Crawford Jackson, wife of Robert McDowell Jackson, son of William Wickham Jackson.

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The stones in the house were cut in the fields by the builder, Thomas Bull, as he had time for the work between planting and reaping. It was years before he was ready to build. Paneling was brought from Eng- land for the east and west sides of the two large first-floor rooms. Also solid mahogany balls for the newels and mahogany balusters. The walls are two feet thick, with open fireplaces throughout the house and massive chimney stacks on the east and west. This house also stands on a rock, is in good repair and has a beautiful situation on a hill.

Thirty years ago Mr. Charles Backman bought the road house by Stony Ford bridge, known as the Sutton House, with race track, and began to improve Orange County's fine trotting stock. Little by little he bought the adoining farm land until he owned 640 acres and remade the mile of road from Stony Ford to La Grange into as fine a highway as are the best State roads to-day

His house was visited by many noted people, among them General Grant when President, and General Benjamin F. Tracy, now ex-Secretary of the Navy. Mr. J. Howard Force now owns the place. General Tracy owned for a few years a farm in Goosetown or LaGrange, which he named Marshland and greatly improved. This also was a stock farm for fine horses ; it is now in other hands. Mr. Backman bought part of the Valentine Hill farm originally belonging to Andrew Wilson, who was a private in Colonel James McClaughrey's regiment of Little Britain. In October, 1777, he was one of the hundred men sent out from Fort Mont- gomery to intercept the British, who were 5,000 strong and commanded by Sir Henry Clinton in person.

Here is a dispatch from Governor Clinton, dated October 7, 1777, the day after the fort was taken: "We received intelligence that the enemy were advancing on the west side of the mountain with design to attack us in the rear. Upon this ordered out Colonels Bruyer and McClaughrey with upwards of 100 men towards Doodletown with a brass field piece, with a detachment of sixty men on every advantageous post on the road to the furnace. They were not long out before they were attacked by the enemy with their whole force; our people behaved with spirit and must have made great slaugliter of the enemy."

Andrew Wilson was here taken prisoner and when an English soldier ordered him to take off his silver shoe buckles he refused and was knocked down by the butt of a musket and his buckles taken. He lay

George W. Carpenter.

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on the sugar hulk for two years and believed he was treated with greater indignity than others because of his refusal.

After his release he lived on the farm mentioned on the east bank of the Wallkill. His son James died first, he himself in 1804. Ile left two sons and a daughter. John lived and died in Goshen. His son, Andrew, raised two companies in 1812, the first he turned over to his intimate friend, Burnett of Little Britain, that they might not be separated ; the second gave him a commission as lieutenant in the regular army. After- wards he became captain and was in charge at Governor's Island. He married a daughter of William Bull, of Wallkill, Milinda Ann, and made a home in Goshen. He was sent to the Legislature from there in 1819. He was prominent in the temperance movement, also the Bible society and the church life of Hamptonburgh.

The first pastor settled at Hamptonburgh was the Rev. James R. Johnson, formerly of Goshen. The tide of prosperity in the town was expected to set to the east, about the new church, but the hopes were not fulfilled, and little by little Campbell Hall became the established center. The Rev. Slater C. Hepburn was called after Mr. Johnson and was installed July 2, 1850, and died in Campbell Hall after serving his people forty-five years.

Able B. Watkins was an early settler near the Denns and had a family of ten children.

In 1749 Silas Pierson came from Long Island and took possession of what long was known as the old shingle house on the Pierson farm, a mile northeast of Hamptonburgh church. This house was burned this spring of 1907. April 13th. The eastern half was built of squared logs up to the eaves.

On the Sth day of July. 1760. James DeLaney, Esq., his Majesty's lieutenant-governor and commander-in-chief in and over the province of New York and the territories depending thereon, signed a com- mission appointing Silas Pierson to be captain of the company of militia foot lately commanded by John Bull. Esq. This was near the close of the French and Indian War, when England had determined to destroy the power of France in America. The militia was liable to be called out at any time to defend the settlements against the attacks of the Indians and to avenge their wrongs.

In 1775 Silas Pierson was captain in Jesse Woodhull's regiment : later

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he was captain of a light horse company in the Revolution. Silas Pier- son and Silas Pierson, Jr., were among the many signers of the pledge in the Cornwall precincts, in which they declared that they would never become slaves and would aid the Continental Congress in opposing the arbitrary acts of the British Parliament. Joshua Pierson, grandfather of George Pierson, Sr., was a private in Col. Jesse Woodhull's regiment in 1777 at the age of sixteen, and went with the regiment under the com- mand of Major Zachariah Du Bois to assist in the defence of Fort Mont- gomery.

The family of Mr. William Henry Pierson still resides on the old farm. His wife was Miss Elizabeth Bull of the "stone house." His daughter Lucile married Harry Bull, of Wallkill, who, like his father. is justice of the peace. It thus appears that in a large degree the history of Hamp- tonburgh township is the history of the Bulls, for marriage has linked the family with so many other well-known names.

We would like to give a list of the men who have served as super- visors and also as elders of the church. Indeed our story could well lengthen itself into a small volume were all to be told which is of interest in our little town. We have tried to keep a class of facts which hold more than a passing and local interest.

We have drawn for our material upon such published records as have been within our reach, and have consulted with persons who have knowl- edge of such points as may have been in dispute.

Let us hope we have wronged no one in anything said or left unsaid, and have disseminated no more false facts than are unavoidable with the most conscientious historians.

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TOWN OF HIGHLANDS.

CHAPTER XIX.

TOWN OF HIGHLANDS.

BY CAPTMIN THEODORE FNCROT.

T HIS is one of the younger towns of Orange County, only those of Tuxedo and Woodbury having been born later. It is, in fact, only about thirty-five years old. But for scenic beauty and native charni it easily outranks every other town in this county, if not all others on the Hudson River. The fame of the Hudson River Highlands is world- wide, and it is in this little town that the culmination of this native grandeur and picturesque beauty is reached. No one who has ever sailed up or down the Hudson, ard who has not, will spend a moment wonder- ing why this township was thus named.

The general shape or contour of the town, laterally, may be roughly classed as triangular. But the topographical surface is far more difficult to classify. It has the most extended river frontage of any town in the country, it being some nine or ten miles, beginning at Cro' Nest, in the town of Cornwall on the north, and reaching below Fort Montgomery, to the Rockland County line.

It is bounded on the north by the town of Cornwall, on the east by the Hudson River, on the south by Rockland county and the town of Woodbury, and on the west by Woodbury.

The area of this young town, as now estimated by the Orange super- visors, is 15.514 acres. In 1879 it was placed at 9.32412 acres. This fractional total would seem to indicate that a very careful survey had been made previous to that time. But nobody has been quite able 10 explain just how this unique engineering feat was accomplished. Look- ing at the town from the river, the task presents many features of serious import, even to the mountain engineer.

The whole thing was valued at $330.600 by the assessors of 1879. But of course there was nothing allowed for sentiment or native grandeur in that cold, business estimate. Perhaps such things really had no cash value at that time, if indeed they have now. The tax of the town that year amounted to $2.896.67. In 1906 the total value of this real estate

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was placed at $857,112. Upon this amount a tax of $8,610.67 was levied. This was made up as follows: $3,474.20, general fund ; $4,423.37, town audits ; $250.02, sworn off taxes ; and $9.33, treasurer's credits.

TITLE TO THE LANDS.

Concerning these, previous to the Revolution, little is definitely known. The lands around the Point, from which West Point takes its name, and to the north and west thereof, were originally granted by the British Crown to Captain John Evans. In 1723 these lands, having been reas- sumed by the Crown, the larger portion was granted to Charles Con- greve upon condition that he, or his heirs and assigns, should settle there and cultivate at least three acres out of every fifty acres of land con- veyed to him in the grant. The inference is, therefore. that the first buildings at West Point were erected about that time.

This Congreve tract comprised some 1,463 acres, which included the northern portion of the Point. But the records do not give the names of these early white settlers. In March, 1747, another portion of this Jolin Evans tract, covering 332 acres, was granted to John Moore, on the same conditions contained in the first grant to Congreve. This tract adjoined the southwest corner of the Congreve Patent. John Moore afterward purchased the Congreve tract and thus became the owner of 1,790 acres in the vicinity of the Point. This he subsequently devised to his son, Stephen Moore, a merchant of Caswell, N. C. Then after a forty-year tenure of this land by the Moore family it was finally sold to the United States Government, pursuant to an act of Congress passed July 5. 1790. The deed of transfer was executed by Moore, December 10, of the same year. The price paid was $11,085. The necessity of this purchase was urged upon Congress by Alexander Hamilton, as Secretary of the Treas- ury, and also by Henry Knox, who was then Secretary of War, who finally conducted the negotiations for the purchase for the Government.

Captain John Evans obtained his original grant on petition, March, 1694, from Governor Dongan, who had purchased the land from the Esopus Indians. It was described as extending "from Murderer's Creek back." This stream finds the Hudson at Cornwall. Captain Gee, of the ancient sloop Federal, who brought stores to West Point between 1790

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and 1810, seems to have owned a dwelling house near the Point about that time, when it was known as Gee's Point.

Adjoining the Congreve Patent on the south was one of the six tracts originally granted to Gabriel and William Ludlow, October 18. 1731, under the conditions of settlement already named. This tract seems to have passed to many successive owners, as follows :

Richard Williams, of Cornwall : Robert Armstrong, of Sussex County. N. J. ; Benjamin Rose, December 1. 1785 : John Dunlap, of Ulster County, September 6, 1788; and Thomas North, of Cornwall. November 22. 1704. North also purchased an adjoining tract on the south from Isaiah Smith, June 3. 1790, and he held the whole tract for nearly thirty years. Then it passed to Oliver Gridley, of Bergen County, N. J., December 28. 1819, who Heeded the same to the United States, May 13, 1824. in accord- ance with the act of Congress, approved March to, of that year.

At the time of the purchase of the Congreve and Moore grants by the Government, Hugh Mcclellan, a Revolutionary soldier, occupied a small house on the property. In recognition of his patriotic services in that war he was permitted to remain and cultivate his garden by Secretary of War John Knox. The old soldier spent the rest of his life there, leaving a wife and a daughter on the premises. They finally claimed the domicile by right of undisputed possession under the laws of the State. But they were finally dispossessed by the National Government in 1839, in an action for ejectment.

In addition to the patents already named the following list of grants. covering other parts of this town of Highlands, are found on the record : Gabriel and William Ludlow, 991 acres. October 13. 1731; Alexander Phoenix, 1.000 acres, July 13. 1750; Thomas Moore and Lewis Pintard. 1,100 acres. December 23. 1762 : Samuel Staats, 400 acres, June 5. 1712 : Thomas Ellison, 770 acres, November 12, 1750: Richard Bradley, 800 acres, July 30, 1743 : Gabriel and William Ludlow. 407 acres, October 18. 1731 ; Vincent and David Matthews, 1,000 acres, November 26. 1761 : Ga- briel and William Ludlow. 1.437 acres, October 18, 1731 : Bradley chil- dren. 4.290 acres, October 30, 1749: Vincent and David Matthews, Soo acres, November 26. 1768; William and Edward Wilkin, 1.305 acres, April 15. 1768: John Osborne, 1,850 acres, March 14. 1775; Thomas Moore and Lewis Pintard. 2,900 acres. December 23. 1762: Smith and Wilkin, 100 acres, April 15, 1768: Moore and Osborne, 150 acres, March

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14, 1775; Smith and Wilkin, 190 acres, April 15, 1768; John Nelson, 550 acres, October 4. 1752; Henry Townsend, 2,000 acres; Thomas Smith, 250 acres, June 14, 1750 ; the Hassenclever & Co.'s tract, 1,000 acres, 1705.

Captain Horace M. Reeve, of the general staff of the United States Army, in his history of West Point during the Revolution, says: "Until the American troops began to cut timber for military purposes, and to crown the surrounding hills with forts and redoubts, West Point and the neighboring Highlands were little else than a wilderness of rugged hills and virgin forests, presenting about the same appearance as first greeted Hendrik Hudson when, in 1609, he sailed up the river which now bears his name."

Hudson anchored near West Point September 14, 1609, and he was probably the first European that ever saw that section.

Continuing, Captain Reeve says : "Although this tract of country could never lend itself kindly to the agriculturist, yet before the advent of the American soldier there were several houses standing at or near West Point, which were subsequently used for purposes very foreign to the peaceful intentions of their builders. Two of these became noted. One was 'Moore's House' at West Point, used by Washington as his headquarters during the whole, or a part, of the time he was stationed at West Point-from July 21, 1779, until November 28. The other was the 'Robinson House,' and was situated on the eastern shore of the Hud- son, about two miles below West Point. It was used as a military hospital and afterward as the headquarters of several successive general officers, among whom was Benedict Arnold, who was in this house when apprised of Andre's capture. It was from this house that Arnold made his escape."

The Mocre house stood in Washington Valley, near the river, a short distance from the northeast corner of the present cemetery. It was built prior to 1749, and was a pretentious structure for that period, being known as "Moore's Folly."

Every foot of land in these Highlands has its memories of the Revo- lutionary War, and this town contains the culminating features of native grandeur not only, but also the vital strategic point on the famous river which figured so conspicuously in the war for independence, and will continue to fill so many important pages of our national history for all time to come.

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TOWN OF HIGHLANDS.

NATURA. FEATURES.

These great hills of grandeur and beauty extend along the entire river front from Stony Point on the south to old Storm King on the north. Scientists tell us that these vast mountains of primitive rock are com- posedi of granite, gneiss and syenite, with vems of trap. But regarding the formation of these towering masses of rock both geologists and lay- men have only speculated and guessed for more than a century, as their descendants and successors will continue to do for ages to come, and leave the maze of mystery as dark and deep as ever. We can only wonder and admire, while scientists wrestle with the mighty problem of creation here presented.

Just now, as the writer is gathering these data for this connected record, he finds that the great mystery concerning the formation of this particular region has become even more obscure than ever through the developments of the vast engineering project now under way off Storm King Mountain. In the effort to find a solid rock bottom beneath the Hudson at this gate of the Highlands, through which to construct the great aqueduct which is to convey the Catskill Mountain water to New York City, the engineers have bored the river bottom to a depth of 700 feet, and are still baffled. Geologists predicted that this rock would be found at least at 500 feet. But now they are all at sea and frankly admit that their supposed knowledge as to the bed of the Hudson at this point was totally wrong. Some expected that rock would be reached even at 100 feet. But now the engineers say they may have to go down 4.000 feet before they can find proper rock through which to build their agne- duct which is to carry 800,000.000 gallons of water daily at a pressure of 200 feet per square inch. The old bed of the river is evidently covere ! with the drift and silt of ages. And who will say when and how this vast body of water broke through these adamantine hills, or by what cyclopean process of upheaval they were formed ?

There are several small streams that flow into the Hudson at chiffer- ent points in this town ; one just south of Cro' Nest, others at Highlan 1 Falls and Fort Montgomery. The pretty cataract, called "Buttermilk Falls," from its characteristic resemblance to that acidulous fluid, as it tumbles over the rocky shelves in fantastic glee in its haste to reach the river, is admired by every tourist. There are also other streams which

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become tributaries of Popolopen's Creek, which finds the Hudson at Fort Montgomery.

The town also contains many inland ponds or small lakes, such as Bog Meadow Pond, Round Pond, Long Pond. Cranberry Pond. Mine Pond, Popolopen Lake and Highland Lake. Strangely enough, many of these ponds have been left without more appropriate names. This High- land Lake, just south of Fort Montgomery, is about 150 feet above the Hudson, and about half a mile long by one-eighth of a mile wide, and is fed by its own springs. "Blood Lake" and "Hessian Lake" are some of its more ancient appellations, bestowed, according to Revolutionary tra- dition, because of a company of Hessians who were slain there when Sir Henry Clinton captured Fort Montgomery.

It is now proposed by the New York authorities to locate a new State Prison in the vicinity of this lake, which is northwest of Iona Island in the Hudson. Most of the region in that immediate section is a wild rocky forest, and sparsely populated. Half a mile or more west of the river, however, there is a comparatively level plateau, some 200 acres in extent, from which a fine view of both reaches of the Hudson is obtained. This is included in the site which has been selected for the prison. Part of it, however, extends over into Rockland County.

This property, which consists of some 500 acres, was purchased by the State for this prison site, in December, 1907. at a cost of $75,000. It is about six miles below Highland Falls, and it includes Highland Lake and its entire watershed. Whether the name of this new prison will be se- lected from the classic nomenclature which prevails in that locality, such as "Doodletown," or "Popolopen," remains to be seen.

"Doodletown Bight." is the classic name handed down from the Co- lonial period, which is here applied to a small bay in the Hudson where small water craft find a safe and pleasant harbor. The new State road which is to run from the New Jersey line to Albany, will pass through the eastern side of this new prison tract. Bear Mountain. on the west, has an inexhaustible supply of granite well suited for building purposes.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

As before stated, the ancient records are almost devoid of names of early settlers in this immediate region, and the presumption is that these settlers were comparatively few. Major Boynton, in his history of West

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Point, says: "The interval between the granting of the patents and the transfer of the titles, down to the period at which the American Revolu- tion commenced, are blanks in historical literature. No traditions even of early settlers are extant, and the probabilities are that, beyond a set- tlement made to secure a site or grant, West Point, being in a region of stratified rocks, heavily covered with drift deposits, and without a suit- able soil for cultivation, remained a mere woodland tract, possessing no higher value than attaches to similar adjoining points in the Highlands which have remained unsettled and uncultivated to this day."

It seems well settled, however, that John Moore, the patentee, really located upon his purchase about 1725. This homestead stood in what has since been known as Washington Valley, from the fact that Wash- ington once occupied the same dwelling for a time. The original house. and even the second one, which replaced it, have long since disappeared, but the remains of the old cellar were visible for many years afterward. This, then. may be regarded as the first point of settlement in the town of Highlands. The Moore descen lants, though inclined toward lovali-m. at the outbreak of the war, could not have been outspoken or turbulent in their opposition to the American cause, as their lands were not con- fiscated. They, however, soon fled to Nova Scotia, but afterward re- turned to the State of North Carolina. where some of them became prom- inent. one being elected Governor of the State : and Stephen Moore sold the West Point reservation to the Government, as already stated. . \ daughter of John Moore married Hugh Mcclellan about the time the war broke out. Although not in the army, as a soklier, Mcclellan seems to have fought bravely against the invaders on his own hook, as it were. for the records contain many instances of his personal prowess. He was employed in hauling stone for the erection of Fort Putnam, and on one occasion he crossed the river alone and brought powder for the Conti- nental Army at West Point at the risk of his life or capture.

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The history of Orange County, New York, Part 23

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