*..*" ''5'^^ •^ ^ \V ^ %p^-".^ 0°^.°* ',^=?^-.-.'= v-^ /: V ~ 4' o ^0 ,^^~/ ' X^^ ^-^'"< ' A^' .,G~'' -"■< - *> ■^ ' • "' <^ •*.^*^ .\'.>' ^^ •^^ ■x^'\ K^^' / -.^ . ^^ •>\ .^ '^^^V^^ ,. s>' -J;. '^c ^. *^ ^<^. .->* The History of Orange County New York EDITED BY RUSSEL HhADLEY PUBLISHED BY VAN DEUSEN AND ELMS MIDDLETOWN. NBW YORK 19 8 0^ • ^ 3 .3-V<3^-f / PREFACE In presenting this new History of Orange County to the ])ubHc, we do so in the earnest hope that it will prove to be the most complete com- pilation of local chronicles that has up to this time been offered to our citizens. The authenticity of the facts contained in the various articles is as absolute as the utmost care could make it. The data have been procured from the best known authorities, and the sketches, when com- pleted, have been subjected to the most searching examination for veri- fication and correction. That no errors will be discovered in this pro- duction, is too much to hope for; but we do most certainly trust, that if any such errors there be. neither in number nor by their nature, will they be found to be sufficiently important to detract from that char- acter for reliability, which it has been our constant aim and endeavor to impart to this history. In this new work the design has been, to make clear the development of ideas and institutions from epoch to epoch ; the social and economic conditions of the people have been preserved in the narrative, and much attention has been paid to describing the civil characteristics of the several towns and cities, both in the conduct of their local affairs and also in relation to each other and the county at large. It is a well-known fact that considerable prejudice exists among a great body of the people toward county histories in general, for the reason that some such compilations in the past, have been composed of fact and fiction so intermingled, as to render it a difficult matter to know what was true and what was false. It has been our object in this work to hew straight to the line, satisfied to simply furnish such information as we were able to gather concerning each important matter or interesting event ; and where the desired materials were lacking, we have not at- tempted to supply that lack, by filling in the vacant niches with products of the imagination. We have not striven for effect, but our object is merely to give an authentic account of facts recent and remote, so dis- posed in a proper and orderly manner, as to enable our readers to clearly understand the history of their county from its origin down to the present dav. 6 PREFACE. It is the limitation attached to all works devoted to general history, that from their very character only a superficial knowledge of the men and their times can be derived from them, while on the other hand, that which tfiey lack is supplied by local histories of this nature, whose great value in adding to the fund of human knowledge cannot be overestimated ; for they are the only mediums through which we can get the whole story of the economy of life, practiced by those men and women in every county in our broad land, which eventually resulted in transforming a wilderness into a garden, and from a weak and needy folk, creating a rich and mighty nation. It has long been recognized by every scholar, that the knowledge of such humble elements is absolutely essential, in order that the mind may intelligently grasp the potent factors which go to make up history. Hence, our correct understanding of the advancement and growth of a people varies in just such proportion as the narrative of their daily lives is full or incomplete. The history of our own county cannot be studied too often ; for it is one of great interest, and the record revealed is a proud one. There is no section of the country possessing more of historic interest, nor does one exist, as closely identified with those crucial events connected with the formative period of the Republic. In this county was held the last cantonment of the Revolutionary army, here Washington passed a large portion of his time, and within our borders he rendered his greatest ser- vice to our country. At the time the army went into winter quarters at Little Britain in 1782, although peace was not declared vmtil the following year, yet it was well understood that the long war was over and the States were at last independent of Great Britain. The knowledge of this fact naturally inclined the minds of men to a consideration of the form of government to be adopted for the infant commonwealth, and now^iere did the matter receive more attention than in that encampment, and from those soldiers whose deeds in arms had made the happy consummation possible. The leisure entailed from the long relief from active duty which ensued after going into camp, afforded ample opportunity for both the officers and men of the army to discuss this question in all its bearings. It must be borne in mind that republics were not much in favor at that period, while the incompetent and discreditable manner in which Congress had conducted the national affairs for years, had created profound distrust PREFACE. 7 and widespread discontent. Under the circumstances it is not so sur- prising that, beheving nothing but chaos and ruin would be the lot of the country should the form of government then in force be continued, the army should have finally declared for a limitcfl monarchy, and desired Washington as king. The deputation of Colonel Nicola to present the subject to Washington does not require repetition here, nor the details of the manner in which that great man resolutely put aside all feelings of personal ambition, and so sternly repressed the movement for all time, that our present form of free government became an assured fact. These events are merely men- tioned to bring vividly to the mind the recollection of the important connection our county sustained toward that great drama, and also to bring clearly home the fact, that even though the sun of liberty rose first from the green at Lexingtcn or the bridge at Concord, the gestation of the Republic occurred on the banks of the Hudson in the old county of Orange. Some criticism of this work has been occasioned through the inclusion therein of biographical sketches ; but we are certam that upon calm re- flection it will be seen that such objections rest upon no substantial foundation. The narratives of the lives of men and their acts constitute all there is of history. If it be true that all that our county shows in the way of growth and development, is entirely due to the men and women W'ho originall}' ]>eopled this region, and w^orthily performed those parts al- lotted to them in the general scheme of life, during their existence here, it is equally true that their successors who still abide with us. took up the burden where it fell from the hands of the fathers, aufl most signally continued the work, and carried it forward to success. If the works them- selves are deserving of commendation, surely the workers and finishers thereof are entitled to the honor of some mention. In sending forth this volume, we trust that in addition to its value as a depository of accurate information and useful knowledge, it will also prove an effective instrument in creating a more active public sentiment regarding historical subjects, and especially foster an interest in the an- nals of our own county. The editor would be wanting in gratitude did he fail to acknowledge his obligations to the well-known writer, the late Mr. Edward M. Rutten- ber. The whole historical field comprising that perio CHAPTER XHI. r ^ .11 Bv E. M. V. McClean ... .165 The Town of Cornwall ^y ^■ CHAPTER XIV. ^ r n (r.,-A Bv J. Erskine Ward . . i»3 The Town of Crawford oy j. >^ CHAPTER XV. The Town of Deer Park CHAPTER XVI. -The Town of^Goshen, By George F. Gregg CHAPTER XVII. ^ ^ •„„ Bv Charles E. Stickney 239 The 1 own of Greenville ^y CHAPTER XVIII. r ,T *..„K„rorV, Bv Margaret Crawford Jackson 250 The Town of Hamptonburgh oy ^*^'"« CHAPTER XIX. , „. ., ,, Bv Captain Theodore Fanrot 201 The Town of Highlands ^^ ^ » CHAPTER XX. .,,.-•,. By Chrxrles E. Stickney Tho Town 01 \ri.iiMnk ^y CHAPTER XXI. Bv M. .\'. l<;i"«- -"^^ The Town of Monroe CHAPTER XXII. . , c Rv David A. Morrison 71,.. -l,,vvr, ot Montcoinery ^y i^*'^'" ^• CHAPTER XXIII. -T Rv Wickham T. Shaw The Town of Mount Hope «> Wick nam C.IAPTER XXIV. Thf Town of Xewburgh i 76 301 .•^25 lo CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXV. page The City of Newburgh 348 CHAPTER XXVI. The Town of New Windsor By Dr. C. A. Gorse 381 CHAPTER XXVn. The Town of Tuxedo 397 CHAPTER XXVHI. The Town of Wallkill By William B. Royce 405 CHAPTER XXIX. The Town of Warwick By Ferdinand V. Sanford 427 CHAPTER XXX. -The Town of Wawayanda , By Charles E. Stickney 454 CHAPTER XXXI. The Town of Woodbury 460 CHAPTER XXXII. The Bench and Bar By William Vanamee 466 CHAPTER XXXIII. The Medical Profession By John T. Howell, M.D 560 CHAPTER XXXIV. The Schools ^ By John M. Dolp'h 600 CHAPTER XXXV. The Churches By Rev. Francis Washburn 623 CHAPTER XXXVI. Agriculture By David A. Morrison 638 CHAPTER XXXVII. Journalism By W. T. Doty 653 CHAPTER XXXVIII. Freemasonry By Charles H. Halstead 736 CHAPTER XXXIX. Horse Breeding By Guy Miller 751 CHAPTER XL. Dairying 761 PART II. Biographical Sketches 77^ THE COUNTY OF ORANGE CHAPTER I. COUNTY, PRECINCTS AND TOWNS. ORANGE was one of tlie earlic>t counties of the State, 'lating back to 1683. when it \\as organized by a colony law. It was ajso one of those foniied by a general act of organization in 1788. when it included the present county of Rockland, and was described as extend- ing from the limits of East anrl West Jersey on the west side of the Hud- son River along the river to ^Murderer's Creek, or the bounds of Ulster County, and westward into the woods as far as Delaware River — that is, all that part of the state south of an easterly and westerly line from the mouth of Murderer's Creek to the Delaware River or northerly line of Pennsylvania. In 1797 Rockland county was set off from it, and five towns from I'lster were added. Its boundaries were definitely fixed by an act of the New York legislature adopted April 3rd, 1801. The previ- ous act of April 5th, 1797. provided that five towns, then a part of the County of Ulster, should be annexed to the county of Orange, and thai the courts should hold their sessions alternately at Newburgh and Goshen. Two days afterward another act was passed defining the boundary lines of the towns composing the newly-constructed county, and naming them as follows: Blooming Grove, Chesekook, Deer Park. Go.shen. Minisink, Montgomery. New Windsor, Newburgh. Wallkill -wv] Warwick. There were subsequent changes, and the following is a list of the present towns, with the years of their erection, and the territories from which they were taken : Blooming Grove, 1799, taken from Cornwall; Cornwall. 1788. as New Cornwall, and changed to Cornwall in 1797; Chester, 1845. taken from i8 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. Goshen, Warwick, Monroe and Blooming Grove; Crawford, 1823, taken from Montgomery; Deer Park, 1798, as a part of Ulster County and taken from Mamakating; Goshen, 1788; Hamptonburgh, 1830, taken from Wallkill, Goshen, Montgomery, Blooming Grove and New Windsor ; Monroe, 1799, taken from Cornwall, original name Chesekook, changed to Southfield in 1802, and to Monroe in 1808, and divided in 1890 into Woodbury and Tuxedo; Montgomery, 1788; Mount Hope, 1825, taken from Wallkill, Deer Park and Minisink, original name Calhoun; New- burgh, 1788; New Windsor, 1788; Wallkill, 1788; Minisink, 1788. There are three cities in Orange County, Newburgh in the town of Newburgh ; Middletown, in the town of Wallkill, and Port Jervis, in the town of Deer Park. Newburgh was chartered as a city in 1865, Middle- town in 1888, and Port Jervis in 1907. The irregular county thus constituted is bounded on the northwest and north by Sullivan and Ulster Counties, on the east and southeast by the Hudson River and Rockland County, on the southwest and west by New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Sullivan County. It has nearly half a million square miles. The towns along the northwestern and northern border are Deer Park, Mount Hope, Wallkill, Crawford, Montgomery and Newburgh. Along the Hudson are Newburgh, New Windsor, Cornwall and High- lands. Next to Rockland County are Highlands, Woodbury and Tuxedo. On the New Jersey line are the point of Tuxedo, Warwick, Minisink, Greenville, and a section of Deer Park. The most western town is Deer Park which lies along New Jersey, the Delaware River and Pennsylvania on the southwest and Sullivan County on the north. In the interior are the towns of Wawa\anda, Goshen, Hamptonburgh. Blooming Grove, Chester and Monroe. The postoffices of the county as distributed in the several towns are named as follovv's : Blooming Grove : Salisbury's Mills, Washingtonville, Blooming Grove, Oxford Depot, Craigsville. Chester : Chester, Greycourt, Sugar Loaf. Cornwall: Cornwall, Cornwall-on-Hudson, Cornwall Landing. Idle- wild, Mountainville, Orrs Mills, Meadowbrook, Firthcliffe. COUNTY, PRECINCTS AND TOWNS. 19 Crawford : Bullville, Pine Bush, Thompson Ridge. Deer Park: Cuddebackville, Godeffroy, Huguenot, Port Jervis, Rio, Sparrowbush. Goshen : Goshen. Greenville : Greenville. Hamptonburgh : Campbell Hall, Burnside. Highlands: Highland Falls, Fort Montgomery, West Point. Middletown : Middletown. Minisink: Minisink, Johnson, Westtovvn, Unionville. Monroe: Monroe, Turner. Montgomery: Walden, Montgomery, Maybrook. Mount Hope : Otisville, Guymard. Nevvburgh : Newburgh, Middle Hope, Liptondale. Cedarcliff, Cro- nomer Valley, Savilton, Orange Lake, Roseton. New Windsor: Little Britain, Rocklet, Vail's Gate, Moodna. Tuxedo: Arden, Southfields, Tuxedo Park. Wallkill : Middletown, Circleville, Stony Ford, Howells Crystalrun, Fair Oaks. Warwick: Edenville, Warwick, Florida, Pine Island, New Milford, Wisner Lake, Bellvale, Greenwood Lake, Amity, Wawayanda: New Hampton, Ridgebury, Slate Hill, South Centreville. Woodbury: W^oodbury Falls, Highland Mills, Central V^alley. To go back and particularize more fully : In 1686 the town of Orange was organized, and soon afterward adjoining patents were attached to it for jurisdiction and assessment. In 1719 the northern settlements were separated into the precinct of Orange, with Tappan as its center, and the precinct of ITaverstraw. with "the <^7hristian patented lands of Haver- straw" as its center. In 1714 the precinct of Goshen was organized, and included the entire county except the Orangetown and Haverstraw dis- tricts. In 1764 it was divided by a straight line, all the lands west of the line constituting the precinct of Goshen and all the lands east, the pre- cinct of .X-ew Cornwall. The four precincts named were the political divisions of the county until after the Revolution. In 1788 the towns of Warwick and Minisink were erected from Goshen, and in 1791 the towns of Clarkstown and Ramapo were erected from Haverstraw. In 1797 the name of the town of New (^trnwall was change 1 to Cornwall. In the southern towns of the County of Ulster, afterward transferred 20 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. to Orange, changes were made in 1709. The precincts of Highlands and Shawangiuik were attached to New Paltz, and^' th€ :.present Orange County towns of Montgomery, Crawford and Wallkill were then em- braced within its Hmits. These division^ continued until 1743, when they were changed to three precincts — Wallkill, Shawangunk and Highlancfs. There was also the precinct of Mainakating west of the precincts of Wallkill and Shawangunk, the northern part of which was made a part of Deer Park in 1798 by the law annexing the Ulster County towns. In 1762 the precinct of Highlands was divided into the precincts of New- burgh and New Windsor, and in 1772 the precinct of Newburgh was divided so as to form another precinct on the north, named New Marl- borough. The same law divided the precinct of Wallkill so that its north- ern section became the precinct of Hanover. In 1782 the name of this precinct was changed to Montgomery by permission of the Provincial Convention of the State. By the general act of 1788 the Ulster County precincts which have been named were erected into the towns of New- burgh, New Windsor, New Marlborough, Shawangunk and Mont- gomery. In the winter of 1797, after much opposition to plans for changing the boundaries of Orange and Ulster Counties, two bills were agreed upon by a Convention of Delegates from the several towns interested, and these were presented to the Legislature and passed. One of them set off from Orange the present County of Rockland, and the other annexed to Orange Cotmty the towns of New Windsor, Newburgh, \\^allkill, Montgomery and Deer Park, then the southern section of the county of Ulster. In 1 801 a general law dividing the State into counties fixed the tlien somewhat undefined boimdaries of Orange, and another law adopted the same year fixed the boundaries of its towns as they now are, with the exception of Woodbury and Tuxedo, into which Monroe was sepa- rated in 1890. The first Board of Supervisors of the present county, which met in Goshen in 1798, was composed as follows: John Vail, Goshen; Francis Crawford, New Windsor ; Reuben Tooker, Newburgh ; Anselem Helme, Cornwall; Jacob Post, Warwick; Nathan Arnont, Minisink: James Finch. Deer Park; David Gallatin, Montgomery: Andrew McCord, Wallkill. Since that time the three towns of Greenville, Wawayanda and High- lands have been erected. 9 (0 3 no (0 EAKL\ 1X1)1. \.\ CHARAC'H-:k AXl^ COXDL'CT 21 CHAPTER II. EARLY INDIAN CHARACTER AND CONDUCT. AMONG the surprises experienced by Columbus and the e.xplurcrs who sailed up and down the coast of North America soon after his great discover)-, were the characteristics of the newly-found race of native Indians. Their tribal differences were comparatively slight, and although uncivilized, many of them exhibited traits which indicated a remote ancestry above savagery, and caused speculation which has not yet ceased. Hendrick Hudson, from whom the magnificent Hudson River takes its name, has given us in his journal the first information alx)ut the tribes at its mouth and along its shores. Sailing from Amsterdam in the ship Half-Moon in 1609, he first landed near Portland,* JMe., on July 19th. Thence he sailed south to Chesapeake Bay, thence north to Delaware Bay, and thence to Sandy Hook, anchoring, probably off Coney Island. Sep- tember 3(1. Here and on the New Jersey coast Indians came to the ship in canoes, and bartered green corn and dried currants for knives, beads and articles of clothing. He wrote that they behaved well, but when he sent out a boat on the 6th to explore the Narrows, his men were at- tacked by twenty-six natives in two canoes, who killed one of his crew with an arrow and wounded two others. On September nth he sailed through the Narrows and found a good protected harbor. Here his ship was again visited by many natives, who brought Indian corn, tobacco and oysters for barter, and (lisi)laycd copper pipes, copper ornaments, and earthen pots for cooking. Hudson started on his vo\age up the river September 12th. and began his return September 22d. His ship stopped near the present city of Hudson, but he proceeded much farther in a small boat — as far, it is supposed, as Albany. About 25 miles below Alba^iy an aged chief enter- tained him hospitablv. and the Indians oft'ered in barter tobacco and * To avoii! circnnilocution prestnt names will be generally iiseil fo imlicale localities. 22 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. beaver skins. Here the Indians of the Hudson, and probably of all North America, first tested the white man's Hquor. Hudson gave them some to see how they would act under its influence. Only one drank enough to become intoxicated, and when he fell down in a stupor the others were alarmed, but after he became sober the next day their alarm ceased, and they manifested a friendly spirit. This was on the east side of the river. Below the Highlands on the west side the natives were of a different disposition, and shot arrows at the crew from points of land. For this they were punished by Hudson's men, who returned their fire and killed about a dozen of them. Hudson's journal says that above the Highlands "they found a very loving people and very old men, and were well used." One of his anchoring places had been the bay at Newburgh, and here he wrote prophetically : "This is a very pleasant place to build a town on," and the handsome and prosperous City of Newburgh shows that he judged well. At this point many more Indians boarded the ship, and did a brisk business in exchanging skins for knives and ornamental trifles. At several anchorages the Indians brought green corn to Hudson's ship, and it was one of the agreeable surprises of the crew at their meals. Com was generally cultivated by the Hudson River tribes, and grew luxuriantly. Ruttenber says it was long supposed to be native, but investigation shows it was transplanted from a foreign shore. It is cer- tain that the early explorers knew nothing of it until it was brought to them by the Indians, and that it had been cultivated by the latter from immemorial times. Hudson wrote that some of the Indians whom he met along the river wore mantles of feathers and good furs, and that women came to the ship with hemp, having red copper tobacco pipes and copper neck ornaments. Verrazano, who sailed along the North American coast 33 years after Hudson's expedition, said the Indians were dressed out in feathers of birds of various colors. He mentioned "two kings" who came aboard his ship in Narragansett Bay as "more beautiful in stature than can possi- bly be described," and characterized them as types of their race. One wore a deerskin around his body artificially wrought in damask colors. His hair was tied back in knots, and around his neck was a chain with stones of different colors. The natives who accompanied the chiefs were of middle stature, broad across the breast, strong in the arm? and well EARLY INDIAN CHARACTER AND CONDUCT 23 formed. A litilc later Roger Williams was welcomed as a friend by an old chief, Canonnieus, and his nephew, and he described the Indians who accompanied them as of larger size than the whites, with tawny com- plexions, sharp faces, black hair, and mild, pleasant expressions. The women were graceful and beautiful, with tine countenances, and of modest appearance and manner. They wore no clothing, except orna- mental deer skins, like those of the men, but some had rich lynx skins on their arms, and various ornaments on their heads composed of braids of hair which hung upon their breasts. These Indians were generous in their disposition, "giving- away whatever they had." Later the Indians were classed from language into two general divi- sions — the Algonquins and the Iroquois — terms given them by the Jesuit missionaries. The Iroquois occupied central and western New York, including the ^Mohawk River, the headwaters of the Delaware, the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. The Algonquins included all the In- dians of Eastern New York, Eastern Canada, New England, New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, and Eastern Virginia. Several tribes in the west Hud.son River counties constituted the Lenni-Lenape nation, which held its council fires on the site of Philadelphia. Some of their names were Waoranecks, Haverstroos, IMinisinks and Waranawonkongs. When Hud- son came the Lenapes were the head of the Algonquin nations, but wars with the Iroquois and the whites so weakened them that they became the subjects of the Iroquois confederacy for eighty years previous to 1755. Then they rebelled, allied themselves with other tribes, Ix-camc the head of the western nations and successfully contested nearly all the territory west of the Mississippi. Dur-ng the period of their subserviency thev were known as the Delawares. The Mohawk^ were the most eastern nation of the Iroquois, and were called Maquas by the Dutch, and a branch on the Delaware, Minquas. The Iroquois, first known as the Five Nations, later received the Tuscaroras of North Carolina, who removed to New York, and with the Chcrokees and other southern Indians became the sixth nation of that great Indian confederacy, to which they also .were related by language. Both the Algonquin and Iroquois confederacies were divided into tribes and sub-tribes of families, each with a head who was the father or founder. These combined for mutual defense and the heads elected one of thc-r number chief sachem, regarding themselve^^ a^^ a nation to make 24 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. laws, negotiate treaties, and engage in wars, the wars being mostly be- tween the Algonquins and Iroquois. The Esopus Indians occupied parts of Orange and Ulster Counties, and their war dances were held on the Dans Kamer. a high promontory north of Newburgh. Their rule extended to other families east and west of the Hudson, but their territory cannot be clearly defined. Regarding Indian character, there have been presented by our his- torians some contrasting but not wholly irreconcilable views. E. M. Ruttenber, in his valuable contribution to the History of Ulster County, edited by Hon. A. T. Clearwater, says : "When they were discovered the race had wrought out unaided a de- velopment far in advance of any of the old barbaric races of Europe. They were still in the age of stone, but entering upon the age of iron. Their implements were mainly of stone and flint and bone, yet they had learned the art of making copper pipes and ornaments. This would rank their civilization about with that of the Germans in the days of Tacitus (about the year 200 A.D.). They had, unaided by the civilization of Eu- rope, made great progress. , They had learned to weave cloth out of wild hemp and other grasses, and to extract dyes from vegetable sub- stances ; how to make earthen pots and kettles ; how to make large water casks from the bark of trees, as well as the lightest and fleetest canoes; h?d passed from the cave to the dwelling house; had established the family relation and democratic forms of government ; their wives were the most faithful, their young women the most brilliant in paint and gar- ments and robes of furs ; they carved figures on stone, and wrote the story of their lives in hieroglyphics, of which some of the finest speci- mens in America are preserved in the senate house in Kingston ; and most remarkable of all, and that which carries back their chronology to a period that cannot be defined, they had developed spoken languages that were rich in grammatical forms, differing radically from any of the ancient and modern languages of the old hemisphere, languages which were surely ingenious, and of which it was said by the most expert philol- ogists of Europe that they were among 'the most expressive languages, dead or living.' . . . Thev were savages or barbarians, as you may please to call them, men who wrote their vengeance in many scenes of blood, the recital of which around the firesides of the pioneers became more terrifving bv renetitimi ; nevertheless they were representatives of a EARI.^' IXDIAX CIIARACTKR AXI) COXDUCT 25 race whose civilization, though it was 1200 years behind our own, had no faults greater than were found in the races from which we boast our lineage." In Samuel Eager's "History of Orange County," published in 1846-7, are found statements presenting a different conception of Indian quali- ties. It says : "The Indian character in this State is well known, and we have no reason to believe that the character of the Indians of Orange was mate- rially different. If you know one you know the general character of those who compose his wigwam, 'and knowing this you know that of his tribe. They are all alike— dirty, slothful and indolent, trustworthy and confiding in their friendships, while fierce and revengeful under other circumstances. Their good will and enmity are alike easily purchased. All have the war dance before starting upon and after returning from the warpath, and bury the dead standing, with their instruments." Their known rule of warfare is an indiscriminate massacre of men, women and children, and they are cruel to their captives, whom they usually slay with the tomahawk or burn up at the stake. They believe in a future state of rewards and punishments, and sacrifice to a Good Spirit — an un- known god. We have the testimony of Hendrick Hudson that the In- dians above the Highlands were kind and friendly to him and his crew, and the more so the further they proceeded up the river. This, we pre- sume, related to those on both sides of the river, though below the High- lands they were of a more hostile character. W'c have understood, as coming from the early settlers, who first located in Westchester and Dutchess and afterwards removed here, as many of them did. that the impression was very general that the Indians on that side of the river were less hostile and more friendly to the white settlers than those on the west; and this was given as a reason for settling there, which accounts in some measure for the earlier settlement of that side of the river. We infer, from the absence of written accounts of anything very peculiar or different in the habits and customs of the Indians of the county from others in the State, and from the poverty of tradition in this respect that there were no such peculiar dift'erences. but they were similar and iilentical with those of the heathen Indians at Onondaga and Buffalo be- fore modified and changed by white association." .These somewhat coutrndic tory views of the Indian race seem to be 26 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. a little too sweeping on both sides, they being neither so good nor so bad as represented. The native Indians have been both kind and cruel to one another and the whites. Their instincts are not unlike those of civilized peoples, but there are less control and restraint in savagery than civiliza- tion. Their tribal differences of conduct towards the whites depended less upon natural disposition than leadership and provocations. Vindictiveness towards real or fancied enemies seems to have prevailed everywhere among the North American tribes, and this was undoubtedly increased towards the whites by the latter's aggressions and by the former's indul- gence in the intoxicants furnished them by their white neighbors. But cruelty is ingrained in the barbarian character almost everywhere, and often is manifested in communities called civilized. The tortures of the middle ages in the name of religion were as painful as those inflicted in the eighteenth century by our Indians, and both seem almost im- possible to the philanthropist of to-day. Not until minds have been softened by such teachings as those of the Founder of Chris- tianity, and extremes of bigotry have given place to tolerance and char- ity, is the natural disposition of the average man to give pain to antagonists dissipated. There has been no more intellectual nation among the aborigines of America than the Senecas of Western New York — the most original and determined of the confederated Iroquois — but its warriors were cruel like the others, and their squaws often assisted the men in torturing their captives. When Boyd and Parker were captured in the Genesee Valley in the Sullivan campaign of 1779, Brant, the famous half-breed chief, assured them that they would not be injured, yet left them in the hands of Little Beard, another chief, to do with as he would, and the prolonged tortures to which he and his savage companions subjected them were horrible. After they had been stripped and tied to trees, and tomahawks were thrown so as to just graze their heads, Parker was un- intenlionally hit so that his head was severed from his body, but Boyd was made to suffer lingering miseries. His ears were cut off, his mouth enlarged with knives and his severed nose thrust into it, pieces of flesh were cut from his shoulders and other parts of his body, an incision was made in his abdomen and an intestine fastened to the tree, when he was scourged to make him move around it, and finally as he neared death, was decapitated, and his head raised on a pole. EARLY INDIAN CHARACTER AND CONDUCT 27 Similar tortures were not uncommon among both the Iroquois and Algonquins when they made captives of the whites. Returning to the Lenni-Lenape of the Hudson River's western lands, there is in Eager's history an account by a Delaware Indian of the recep- tion and welcome by the Indians of the first Europeans who came to their country — on York Island — whicli is here condensed. Some Indians out fishing at a place where the sea widens saw some- thing remarkably large floating on the water at a great distance, which caused much wondering speculation among them. The sight caused great excitement, and as it approached news was sent to scattered cliiefs. They fancied that it was a great house in which the Mannitto (Great Spirit) was coming to visit them. Meat for sacrifices and victuals were pre- pared. Conjurors were set to work, and runners were sent out. The latter soon re])orted that it was a great house full of human beings. When it came near it stopped, and a canoe came from it containing men, one elegantly dressed in red. This man saluted them with a friendly counten- ance, and, lost in admiration, the Indians returned his salute. They saw that he glittered with gold lace and had a white skin. He poured some- thing from a gourd into a cup. drank from it, filled it again, and handed it to a chief. It is passed around, and the chiefs smell of it, but do not drink. At last a resolute chief jumps up and harangues the others, saying that they ought to drink, as the ^lannitto had done, and he would dare to drink, although it might kill him, as it was better that one man should be destroyed than that a whole nation! should die. Th«n he drank, soon began to stagger, and finally fell to the ground. He fell asleep, and his companions thinking that he was dead, began to bemoan his fate. But he awoke, and declared that he had never before felt so happy as when he drank from the white man's cup. He asked for more, which was given him, and the whole assembly imitated him and became intoxicated. After they became sober they were given presents of beads, axes, hoes and stockings. Then the Dutch made them understand that they would not stay, but would come again in a year, bring more presents, and would then want a little land. They returned the next season, began cul- tivating the grounds and kept bargaining for more land until the Indians began to believe that they would soon want all the country. The scenes thus described by the Delaware Indian were probably soon after the vovagfe of discovery In- Hendrick Hudson. 28 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. The. Esopus Indians, according to early records, represented four sub- tribes — the Amangaricken, Kettyspowy, Mahon and Katatawis. In 1677' their chief deeded a large tract of land lying along the Hudson in Ulster and Orange Counties and extending back to the Rochester hills, to the English Government. The tract cannot be clearly defined. Previous negotiations and fighting led to this transfer. In 1663 Wildwijk (Kings- ton), where an infant colony had been started, was set on fire, and the colonists were attacked and murdered in their homes with axes, toma-' hawks and guns. They finally rallied and drove the Indians away, but not until twenty-five of them had been killed and forty-five made prisoners. The New Village, as it was called, was annihilated, and of the Old Village twelve houses were burned. When Peter Stuyvesant heard of the calamity he sent a company of soldiers from New Amsterdam to assist the settlers. They were commanded by Captain jMartin Kregier, arrived at Wildwijk July 4, and a few days afterward Kregier had a conference with five Mo- hawk and IMohican chiefs who came from Fort Orange. He induced them to release some of their captives, but his negotiations with the VVarrana- wonkongs were less successful. They were the proprietors of lands in the vicinity of Newburgh, and for some distance above and below the Lenni-Lenape confederacy. They would not agree to terms of peace unless the Dutch would pay for the land called the Groot Plat or Great Plot and add presents within ten days. Kregier would not agree to this,- and on July 25th followed them to their castle. They abandoned it, and fled to the Shawangunk Mountains, taking their captives with them. They were followed, and again retreated. Kregier burned their palisaded castle, cut down their cornfields and destroyed about a hundred pits full of corn and beans which were a part of the harvest of the previous year, 'ihen Kregier returned to Wildwijk and guarded the settlers while they harvested their grain. He resumed ofiensive operations in September, sending out about fifty men to reduce a new castle which the Indians were building "about four hours beyond the one burned." The Indians were surprised, but fought fiercely as they retreated, killing and wounding three of the Dutch soldiers. Thirteen Indians were taken prisoners and twenty-three Dutch captives released. The Indians fled to the mountains, the uncompleted fort was destroyed, and the soldiers carried away much spoil. Another force was sent to the same place October ist, when the Indians retreated southward, and the Dutch completed the work of de- l■:.\kl.^■ INDIAN ( ii.\k.\rTi:K and (.ondict 29 structioii. including crops and \vig\vani,> an)und the fori. Later the In- dians solicited peace and an armistice was granted. They had sutYered severely, and felt crushed, and their allies, the Waoranecks, were also subdued, although their lerritury had not been invaded. "The embers of their forest worship, which had for ages been lighted on the Dans Kamer, were extinguished forever." In the following May of 1664 they sought and executed a treaty with the Dulch at l<"ort Amsterdam, whereby the lands claimed and con{|uered by the Dutch were to remain the pro]i- erty of the conquerors, and the Indians were not to approach the Dutch settlements with arms. The ratification of the treaty was celebrated, and thus was closed the struggle of the Indians for the possession of their lands on the western slope of the Hudson from the Catskills to the ocean. The Minsis remained in the western part of Orange and some adjoining territory, and in i(m)2 and 1694 were strengthened by additions of large colonies of Shawanoes. For nearly a hundred years after the treaty there was but little trouble between the Indians and the settlers of Orange County. The incursions during the I'rench and Indian and the Revolutionary Wars properly belong to the military chapter of this history. 30 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. CHAPTER HI. FIRST SETTLEMENTS AND SETTLERS. THERE is a tradition, supported by some evidence, that the first settlement of Orange County was in the old Minisink territory along the Delaware River. Although the supposed settlement was mostly in Pennsylvania, the reported excavations, roads and other work of the settlers were mostly in Orange County. The story of the tradition, and evidence that it has a basis of fact, are given in a letter by Samuel Preston, Esq., dated Stockport, June 6, 1828, which is pub- lished in Samuel W. Eager's county history of 1846-7, and reproduced in Charles E, Stickney's history of the Minisink region of 1867. Eager says the letter "will throw light upon the point of early settlement in the Minisink country," and Stickney assumes that its second-hand satements are substantially true. But Ruttenber and Clark's more complete history of the county, published in 1881, discredits them. The essential parts of Preston's letter are here condensed. He was deputed by John Lukens, surveyor general, to go into North- ampton County on his first surveying tour, and received from him, by way of instruction, a narrative respecting the settlements of Minisink on the Delaware above the Kittany and Blue Mountain. This stated that John Lukens and Nicholas Scull — the latter a famous surveyor, and the former his apprentice — were sent to the Minisink region in 1730 for the government of Philadelphia ; that the Minisink flats were tlien all settled by Hollanders ; that they found there a grove of apple trees much larger than any near Philadelphia, and that they came to the conclusion that the first settlement of Hollanders in Minisink was many years older than William Penn's charter. Samuel Depuis, who was living there, told them that there was a good road to Esopus, near Kingston, about a hundred miles from the Mineholes, which was called the Mine road. Preston was charged by Lukens to learn more particulars about this Mine road, and obtained some from Nicholas Depuis, son of Samuel, who was living in great affluence in a spacious stone house. He had known the Mine road FIRST SETTLL:.\11£XTS AXD SI£TTLEKS. 31 well, an.l before a boat channel was opened to Foul Kilt, used to drive on It several times every winter with loads of wheat an.l cider to buy silt and other necessaries, as did also his neighbors. He repeated stories with out dates that he had heard from older people. They said that in some lormer aj-e a companv of mniers came there from Holland- that tliev worked two mines, and were very rich; that they built the Mine road with great labor, and hauled their ore over it; that they bought the im provements of the native Indians, the most of whom moved to the Sus- quehanna. In 1789 Preston began to build a house in the Minisink. and obtained more evidence from Gen. James Clinton, the father of Gov Dewitt Clin ton. and Christopher Tappan, Recorder of Ulster County, who came there on a surveying expedition. They both knew the Alineholes and the Mine road, and were of the opinion that they were worked while New York belonged to Holland, which was previous to 1664. Preston did not learn what kind of ore the mines produced, but concluded that it was silver He went to the Paaquarry Alineholes, and found the mouths caved full and overgrown with bushes, but giving evidence of a great deal of labor done there in some former time. Ruttenber and Clark's history, as stated, discredit the tradition regard- ing the early settlement of the Minisink bv HoUan.lers, as accepted by Clinton, lappan, Depuis, Preston and others. It represents the Mine road to be simply an enlargement of an old Indian trail, and the mines to have been of copper and locateed lands of them in ( )ctoIx'r 1689. "Ihere is little doubt that he was the first settler ,>n the western border," says the history. But Stickney. after recapitulating the traditions and evidence of the early settlement of the region. >ays : '"Here generations live.l the fleeting span of liie ni blissful i-norance of anv outer .m- happier world beside. T^2 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. and were alike unknown outside the boundaries of their own domain until some wanderer chanced to come across their settlement, and went on his way, thereafter to remember with gratitude and envy the affluence and comfort that marked their rough but happy homes." If Tietsoort was the first white settler of the Minisink, Arent Schuyler was probably the second, as he settled there in 1697, having been granted a patent of 1,000 acres of its lands by Governor Fletcher. The governor had sent him there three years before to ascertain whether the French in Canada had been trying to bribe the Indians to engage in a war of ex- termination against the New Yorkers from their fastnesses in the Shaw- angunk Mountains. The earliest land transfers and titles were so thoroughly investigated by Ruttenber and Clark that we cannot do better, perliaps, than condense mostly from their history. Warranawonkong chiefs transferred to Governor Stuyvesant the Groot Fiat or Great Plot, as it was called, in which Kingston is now situated. These lands are said to be the first for which Europeans received a title from the Indian^,-, and are somewhat indefinitely described in the treaty with them of 1665 to which reference has been made. They were con- quered by Captain Kreiger in 1663, and embraced three townships in southwestern Ulster. Chronology next takes us to the extreme south of Orange County. Here Balthazar DeHart and his brother Jacob, purchased of the Indians "the Christian patent lands of Haverstraw." They were on the south side of the Highlands and extended from the Hudson west- ward to the mountains. On the presumption that they were included in the boundaries of New Jersey, the Harts soon transferred them to Nich- olas Depues and Peter Jacobs Marius, and purchased another tract north of them in 1671, which was bounded by the Hudson River on the east and the mountains on the south. This became the property of Jacobs. They also purchased a tract north of the previous purchase, and including a part of it, which was called Abequerenoy, and passed from them to Hendrick Ryker. On the north a Huguenot, Louis Du Bois, with some friends who had been driven from France by religious persecution, located first at Esopus in 1660; and in September, 1667, after purchase from the Indians, twelve of them became patentees of a tract of 36,000 acres lying north of the Redonte Creek, as the Warranawonkong was then called. The patent was '■11 n [•"ikST si'/rriJ-.Mi-.xrs axd si-.ti-ij-.ks. 33 obtained from Governor Andros in the names of l.ouis \)u IJois. Christian Doyan. Abraham Hasbroueq. Andre Le I-'ebYre. jean Ilasbroucq, Pierre Dovan. Louis lieviere, Antliony Crespel, Abraham l)u IJois, Hayne Frere. Isaac Du IJois and Simon Le Febvre, "tlieir lieirs and others." Nine fann'lics immethattly settled on ihe la'id and founded New I'altz. lletwecu I la\-crslra\v and New I'altz I'atriek Mac (jregorie. David I'Vjsbruck, his brother-in-law. and twenty-five others, who were mostly Sooteii Presbyterians, occupied lands at the moutii of the Waoraneck. and Mac Gregorie purchased for them 4,000 acres on both sides of Murderer's Creek, on which they settled. Mac Gregorie built his cabin on Plum Point, then called Conwanham's Hill, and the cabins of his associates were in the vicinity, and on the south side of the creek David Toshuck. the brother-in-law. who subscribed himself "Laird of Minivard." established a trading post. "Within the bounds of the present county of Orange this was the first European settlement," says the historian, but the precise ^^^u^^/l- j-iRST settli:mi:.\j"s and settlers. 2,7 26. Tlionias \oxon, 2000 acres, May 2Sth, 1720. 27. William Iluddk-ston, 2000 acres, Juno 2d, 1720. 28. Vincent Matthews, 800 acres, Jime I7tli, 1720. 29. Richard Van Dam, 1000 acres, June jotji, 1720. 30. Francis Harrison, Oliver Schuyler, and Allen Jarratt, 5000 acres, July 7th, 1720. 31. Phillip Schuyler, Johannes Lansing, Jr., Henry Wileman, and Jacobus Bruyn, 8000 acres, July 7th, 1720. ^2. Patrick ALicGrcgorie, two tracts, 660 acres, Aug. 6th, 1720. a. Mary Ingoldsby and her daughter, Mary Pinhorne, and Mary Pinhornc and \Vm. Pinhorne, her children, two tracts, 5360 acres, Aug. nth, 1720. 34. Jacobus Kipp, John Cruger, Phillip Cortland, David Provost, Oliver Schuyler, and John Schuyler, 7000 acres, Oct. 17th, 1720. 35. Lewis Morris and Vincent Pearce, two tracts, 1000 acres each, July 21st, 1721. T^. John Haskell, 2000 acres, August 24th, 1721. 37. Patrick Hume, 2000 acres, Nov. 29th, 1721. 38. James Henderson, two tracts, one not located, 1600 acres, Feb. 12th, 1722. 39. Jacobus Bruyn and Henry Wileman, 2500 acres, April 25th, 1722. 40. James Smith, 2000 acres, Dec. 15th, 1722. 41. Charles Congreve, 800 acres. May 17th, 1722. 42. Ann Hoaglandt, 2000 acres. May 24th, 1723. 43. Francis Harrison, Mary Tathani, Thomas Brazier, James (iraham, and John Haskell, 5600 acres, July loth, 1714. 44. William Bull and Richard Gerrard, 2600 acres, Aug. lOth, 1723. 45. William Bull and Richard Gerrard, two tracts, 1500 acres, Dec. 14th, 1724. 46. Isaac Bobbin, 600 acres, March 28th, 1726. 47. Edward Blagg and Johannes Hey, two tracts, 2000 acres each, March 28th, 1726. 48. Nathaniel Hazard and Joseph Sackett, two tracts, 4C00 acres, Jan. nth, 1727. 49. William Bradford, 2000 acres, Sept. ist, 1727. 50. John Spratt and Andries Marschalk, 2000 acres, April 12th, 1728. 51. James Wallace, 2000 acres, March 2d, 1731. ■-52. Gabriel and William Ludlow, six tracts, 4000 acres, Oct. i8th, 1731. 53. Thomas Smith, 1000 acres. May 8th, 1732. 54. Daniel Everett and James Stringhani, 3850 acres, Jan. 17th, 1736. 55. Elizabetli Dennc, 1140 acres, Dec. 12th, 1734. 56. Joseph Sackett and Joseph Sackett, Jr., two tracts, 2000 acres, July 7th, 1736. 57. Nathaniel Hazard, Jr., 2000 acres, Aug. I2th, 1736. 58. Thomas Ellison, three tracts, 2000 acres. May 13th, 1737. 59. Joseph Sackett, five tracts, 2000 acres, Sept. ist, 1737. 60. Ann, Sarah, Catherine, George, Elizabeth, and Mary Bradley, two tracts, 4690 acres, Oct. 14th, 1749. 61. Cornelius DuBois, two tracts, one not located, July 2d. 1739. 62. Richard Bradley, 800 acres. May 17th, 1743. 63. Jane and Alice Colden, two tracts, 4000 acres, Oct. 30th, 1749. 64. John Moore, 280 acres, Oct. 30th, 1749. 65. Peter Van Burgh Livingston and John Provost, 3000 acres. May 26th, 1750. 66. George Harrison, three tracts, 2000 acres, July 20th, 1750. 6y. Jacobus Bruyn and George Murray, 4000 acres, Sept. 26th, 1750. 68. Thomas Ellison and Lawrence Roome, six tracts, 4000 acres, Nov. 12th. 1750 69. Alexander Phoenix and Abraham Bockel, 1000 acres, July 13th, 1751. 70. Thomas Ellison, 1080 acres, Dec. ist, 1753. 71. John Nelson, 550 acres. Oct. 4th, 1754. 72. James Crawford, Jr., Samuel Crawford, James White, and David Crawford, 4000 acres, May 17th, 1761. 73. Cadwallader Colden. Jr., and Daniel Colden, 720 acres. June 20th, 1761. 38 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. 74. Vincent and David Matthews, 1800 acres, Nov. 26th, 1761. 75. John Nelson, 1265 acres, Oct. 4th, 1762. 76. Thomas Moore and Lewis Pintard, 2000 acres, Dec. 23,d, 1762. TJ. Peter Hassenclever, March 2Sth, 1767. 78. William Smith and Edward Wilkin, 2000 acres, April 17th, 1768. 79. William Arisen and Archibald Breckenridge, 400 acres, 1770. 80. Daniel Horsemanden, Miles Sherbrook, Samuel Camfield, and William Sid- ney, 3210 acres, 1772. 81. Thomas Moore and John Osborne, 2000 acres, March 14th, 1775. 82. Henry Townsend, 2000 acres. Only a small part of the Minisink patent was in the present county of Orange, but the Wawayanda and Chesekook patents were wholly within its limits, and covered its most fertile sections. The Wawayanda patent .caused much trouble, and was unoccupied by settlers until 171 2, when tlie surviving shareholders — Christopher Denne, Daniel Cromeline and Benja- min Aske — determined to make settlements thereon, and to facilitate their ends were made justices of the peace. Parties were sent out by each of them, and these began the settlements of Goshen, Warwick and Chester, where houses were soon completed and occupied. The agent who pre- ceded Denne into the wilderness was his adopted daughter, Sarah Wells, then only 16 years old, who was accompanied only by friendly Indian guides. She married William Bull, the builder of Cromeline's house, and lived to the great age of 102 years and 15 days. Soon after the settlement thus started in 1712 John Everett and Samuel Clowes, of Jamaica, L, I., took charge of the patent, and proved to be enterprising and efficient agents. Recorded sales to settlers and others prior to 1721, as well as to Everett and Clowes, were as follows: 1. Philip Rokeby sold his undivided twelfth part to Daniel Cromeline, John Merritt, and Elias Boudinot, June loth, 1704. Merritt sold his third to Cromeline in 1705. Boudinot sold his third to George McNish, who sold to Clowes, Feb. Sth, 1714, for £150. 2. Cornelius Christianse sold to Derrick Vandenburgh, Sept. 8th, 1704, all his twelfth part. Vandenburgh sold to Elias Boudinot, and the latter sold one-sixth of same to Everett and Clowes, July 20th, 1714, for i66 13s. Boudinot's heirs sub- sequently sold five-sixths to Everett and Clowes for £41 13s. 4d. This tract em- braced New Milford, in the present town of Warwick. 3. Hendrick Ten Eyck sold his twelfth part to Daniel Cromeline, Dec. 8th, 1704. Cromeline, who also owned two-thirds of the Rokeby share, sold to Everett and Clowes, Jan. ist, 1714, the sixth part of his interest for £83 6s., excepting two tracts, one of which contained three thousand seven hundred and six acres. This tract was principally in the present town of Chester, and embraced the site on which he had made settlement and erected a stone dwelling, and to which he had given the name of "Gray Count." 4. Ann Bridges sold to John Van Home, merchant, of New York, July 4th, 1705, :q u o a o J FIRST SETTLEMENTS AND SETTLERS. 39 all the equal undivided twelfth part held by her husband, Dr. John Bridges for the sum of £250. Van Home was also the purchaser of a part or the whole o another Da?['foTl8°6s ?d S'.v"^ Clowes one-sixth part of one-sixth of one-thrr"een 1 part lor tso os. jsd. Amity was m Bridges s parcel 5- Daniel Honan sold to John xMerritt, 1705, all his twelfth part. Margery Mer- ritt widow, and John Merritt, son, sold to Adrian lloaglandt one-half and to Anthony Rutgers one-half. Rutgers sold to Everett and^'lowes one twelfth ^f letter! ApnlitTA'/forVs "°^e'^"^^' '^^^ '^ ^^^^ ^'''"^^ Pities one-twelfth, thl 6 Derrick Vandeiiburgh died holding his original share, and his wife, Rymerich and h.s son Henry, his heirs, sold the same to Elias Boudinot. Aug 8471707 Boudinot sold his entire share to Clowes, Oct. 27th, 1713. for £355 This oa reel embraced what is called m the old deeds the "Florida (ract;" the 'name 'TlJrida" 15 siiii rcLHiiicci. 7. John Chohvell sold his twelfth part to Adrian Hoaglandt, Oct. 5th, 1706 for £350. Anna Hoaglandt, his widow, sold to Everett and Clowes one-siith of the share, and the remainder descended to Christopher Banker and Elizabeth his wife h?;"hdr^'"''" ^''^ ^' ''''^'' ''"'^ ^'*"'' ^"^eers and Helena his wife,' 8. John Merritt held his share at the time of his death, and his heirs, Margery flT m ''' '""i"^ Joh" Merritt, eldest son, sold one-half to Adrian Hoaglandt John (then a resident of New London) sold to John Everett, Feb. 2Sth 1714 the remaining half for ii20. ^ ' ' ^' 9. Benjamin Aske sold to Everett and Clowes, July 20th, 1714, one-sixth of his thirteen h part for £50 He subsequently sold a portion to LawJ^nce Decker? Feb 28th, 1,19, another to Thomas Blain, May 20th, 1721 ; and another to Thomas De- Kay, Dec. 8th 1724. In all cases the land conveyed is described as part of his farm, called \\ arwick and in all cases the parties to whom the deeds were made were described as residents of the county and upon the land conveyed his°thiJi:eSr;arff"?^i50.'' '' ^^"^^^^ ^"^ ^^°^^-^^' ^''^ --'^- ^^14, one-sixth of 11. Peter Matthew-s, then living in Albany, sold all his thirteenth part to Clowes reb. nth, 1713, for £200. *^ v-»">to, 12. Christopher Denne sold, July 20th. 1714. to Clowes an.l Everett one-sixth of his share for £50. He also sold to Robert Brown three hundred and tenacres bept. 3rd, 1721. Elizabeth Denne sold to William Mapes, Joseph Allison Tohn Yelverton, Ebenezer Holley, Joseph Sears, John Green, and John Worlev, theAIapes deed bearing date March ist, 1729. The remainder of her interest in the patent passed by her will to Sarah Jones, spinster, of New York, and Vincent Matthews Sarah Jones afterwards married Thomas Brown. 13. Dr. Samuel Staat's thirteenth part descended to his children, Gerturv wife of Andries Codymus; Sarah, wife of Isaac Gouverneur; Catalyria wife of Ste- vanus Van Cortlandt ; Anna, wife of Philip Schuyler; Johanna White, widow and Iryntie Staats, who sold to Clowes and Everett one-sixth of said nart for £50, Sept. 2, 1720. ^ By these conveyances Everett and Clowes came into possession of lands equaling four of the thirteen parts, and, as required by the terms of tlieir deeds, laid out the township of Go.shen in 17 14. divichng it into farms and opening roads, and assigned 200 acres of land for the support of a min- ister. Some of the first settler'^— tliose of i7i4_xvcrc:- ^Tichael Dimninf^ 40 THE COUNTY OF ORANGE. Johannes Wesner, Solomon Carpenter, Abraham Finch, Samuel Seeley and John Holley. The most prolonged and bitter contest of titles was between settlers of Orange County, mostly in the original Minisink region, and settlers of Northern New Jersey. This was continued for sixty-seven years with occasional border frays. The dispute had reference to the boundary line between New York and New Jersey. King Charles II of England in March, 1663, gave to his brother, the Duke of York, a patent of all lands "from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay." The following year in June the Duke of York granted release of all the territory now known as New Jerse\- to Lord Berkley and Sir George Carteret. The northern line as described in this grant extended from "the northwardmost branch" of the Delaware River, "which is in latitude 41 degrees 40 minutes and crosseth over thence in a straight line to the latitude 41 degrees on Hudson's River." Sir Carteret took the east half .of the province and Lord Berkley the west half. In 1673 the Dutch reconquered New York from the English, but on February 9, 1674, in a treaty of peace between the two nations, it was restored to England. Sir Carteret immediatcl}' took the precaution to have a new patent made out, which defined the boundaries in about the same general terms as before. Then came controversies as to whicli should be called "the northwardmost branch" of the Delaware. The point of 41 degrees on the Hudson was agreed to, but the New Y^orkers insisted that the line should touch the Delaware at the southern extremity of Big Minisink island, and the Jer- seymen that the point should be a little south of the present Cochecton. This difference made the disputed triangular territory several miles wide at the west end. Under the New Jersey government the land was parceled out in tracts to various persons, and when these came to take possession the men who had settled upon them long before, resolutely maintained their claims. In the border war that resulted numbers of the Minisink people were captured and confined in New Jersey prisons. The first series of engagements resulted from efforts to obtain possession of the lands of a Mr. Swartout,, who was a major in the militia of Orange County. One day the Jersey men surprised him and put his family and household goods out doors. He went to Goshen for help, and a formid- able company returning back with him, they in turn put the New Jersey occupants and their goods out of the house, and restored it to the major. FIRST SETTLE.MI-XTS AND SETTLERS. 41 'ilieii a spy was employed to watch the Jerscymcii. ami ihrouj^h the iiiiDr- mation which he continually fuinished, their future operations were gen- erally frustrated. Ahout 1740 the "Jersey lilues" made another attempt upon the major and his possessions, but they were anticij^ated and driven or frightened back, no one, however, being killed. In 1753 a [ersey raid was made to get possession of the lands of Thomas De Key, colonel of the Orange County militia and a justice of the peace. He tried to nego- tiate with them, and induce them to wait until the boundary question was determined, but they refused, and he then barricaded himself in his house, and threatened to shoot the first man who tried to enter, and they finally retired vowing that the\ would bring a larger force. The last important raid was in 17^)5. on a Sunday, when the Jerseymen came in considerable torce resolved to capture Major and Captain Westbrook. Thev sur- rounded the church where the Westbrooks were worshiping, and when the service was over there was a fight, amid the screams and sobs of women, with fists and feet, in which the Jerseymen, being the more nu- merous, conquered and captured the \\'estbrcx)ks. They were confined in the Jersey colon}' prison awhile, and then released. In 1767 hostilities were suspended, and commissioners were appointed to run a boundary line, and soon afterward the territory was surveyed, and about e(|ually divided between the claimants, ami j)eace thenceforth was established between the two sections. In 1683, when the county was organized, it did not contain more than twenty families. In 1698 a first census was ordered by Governor Rellmont. and it showed the po])uIation to consist of 20 men. 31 women. 140 children and 19 negro slaves. In i860 the population had increased to 63.812; in 1880. it was f' fertile, producing sweet grasses from which much of the famous Orange County butter has been made. The peaks rise from 1,400 to 1,800 feet above tide water. This range was the original dividing line between the Wawayanda and Chesekook patents. The Schunemunk range is on the dividing line of the towns of Monroe and Blooming Grove and a part of that of Blooming Grove and Corn- wall. An accepted descriptive phrase for the range is, "the high hills west of the Highlands." North of it, in New Windsor and Xewburgh, is Muchattoes hill, west of it Woodcock hill, and southwest of the latter are Round, Mosquito, Rainer's and Peddler's hills ; also Torn Rocks, which rise in two rocky peaks 200 feet high. To the southwest, in the town of Warwick, are the Bellvale Mountains, and south of these the Sterling Mountains. Several other mountainous elevations in Warwick and Woodbury punctuate this part of the county and also the border country on the west. The feet of Pochuck Mountain are in the Drowned Lands, and northerly in Warwick are Mounts Adam and Eve, with Adam looking down from his superior height upon the longer Eve. Easterly, in Chester, is Sugar Loaf ^Mountain, and west of this is Mount Lookout, the principal elevation of Goshen. With the further mention of Mount William and Point Peter, looking down ui)on Port Jervis. let us clip the long list of Orange County elevations. \ alleys connect mountains and hills. That of the Delaware River, along the border of Deer Park, is narrow and irregulai, being much broken by tributaries and mountains. The most of the cultivated lan