Читать книгу The History of Orange County New York - Группа авторов - Страница 8

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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 published 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 statements 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 Northampton 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 then 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 Mine holes, 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 well, and before a boat channel was opened to Foul Rift, used to drive on it several times every winter with loads of wheat and cider to buy salt and other necessaries, as did also his neighbors. He repeated stories without dates that he had heard from older people. They said that in some former age a company of miners came there from Holland; that they 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 improvements of the native Indians, the most of whom moved to the Susquehanna.

In 1789 Preston began to build a house in the Minisink and obtained more evidence from Gen. James Clinton, the father of Gov. Dewitt Clinton, and Christopher Tappan, Recorder of Ulster County, who came there on a surveying expedition. They both knew the Mine holes 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 Mine holes, 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 regarding the early settlement of the Minisink by Hollanders, as accepted by Clinton, Tappan, 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 located in what is now the town of Warren, Sussex County, N. J. It says that the Dutch at Esopus during the war of 1660-63 had little knowledge of the country, even east of the Shawangunk, and that if the Minisink was penetrated at a much earlier period it was by way of the Delaware River. The historian discusses the subject further, and concludes that the first settler of the Minisink was William Tietsort, a blacksmith from Schenectady, who barely escaped the slaughter at that place in 1689, and went to the Minisink country from Esopus, by invitation of friendly Indians, and purchased lands of them in October, 1689. "There is little doubt that he was the first settler on the western border," says the history.

But Stickney, after recapitulating the traditions and evidence of the early settlement of the region, says: "Here generations lived the fleeting span of life in blissful ignorance of any outer or happier world beside, 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 Tietsort 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 extermination against the New Yorkers from their fastnesses in the Shawangunk Mountains.

The earliest land transfers and titles were so thoroughly investigated by Ruttenber and Clark that we cannot do better, perhaps, than condense mostly from their history.

Warranawonkong chiefs transferred to Governor Stuyvesant the Groot Plat 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 Indians, and are somewhat indefinitely described in the treaty with them of 1665 to which reference has been made. They were conquered 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 De Hart 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 westward to the mountains. On the presumption that they were included in the boundaries of New Jersey, the Harts soon transferred them to Nicholas 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 obtained from Governor Andros in the names of Louis Du Bois, Christian Doyan, Abraham Hasbroucq, Andre Le Febvre, Jean Hasbroucq, Pierre Doyan, Louis Beviere, Anthony Crespel, Abraham Du Bois, Hayne Frere, Isaac Du Bois and Simon Le Febvre, "their heirs and others." Nine families immediately settled on the land and founded New Paltz.

Between Haverstraw and New Paltz Patrick Mac Gregorie, David Fosbruck, his brother-in-law, and twenty-five others, who were mostly Scotch Presbyterians, occupied lands at the mouth 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 date is not given. Stickney thinks the year was 1684, but it was probably a little earlier, as about that time Mac Gregorie entered into the military service of the State without perfecting his patent, mistakenly trusting Governor Dongan to protect his interests, who, in 1684, obtained from three Indian owners their title to a tract extending from New Paltz along the Hudson to Murderer's Kill, thence westward to the foot of the high hills, and thence southwesterly along the hills and the river Peakadasank to a pond; and the same year added by deed from several Indians another large tract of the land called Haverstraw. These lands included a part of those which the Indians had previously sold to Mac Gregorie, and others which they had sold to Stephanus Van Cortlandt. The latter had preserved his deed, and succeeded in obtaining a patent attaching them to his manor across the river. Mac Gregorie was killed in the Leslie revolution of 1691. Governor Dongan sold his two purchases to John Evans in 1694, and the latter then proceeded to dispossess Mac Gregorie's widow and her family of their home, when he granted only leases to them and the other Scotch settlers. After some years, however, the Mac Gregorie heirs, in consideration of their original claim, obtained a patent of the Plum Point farm and a mountain tract.

The fourth and largest settlement was made adjoining "the Christian patented lands of Haverstraw" by emigrants from Holland, mostly of the Reformed Dutch Church. They were granted a township patent in March, 1686, under the name of the town of Orange. There were sixteen trustees of this grant, which began at the mouth of the Tappan Creek, extended north to Greenbush, and thence easterly and southerly back to Tappan Creek. The center of the township was Tappan, where a church was organized. The trustees of the grant were Claessen Cuyper, Daniel De Clercke, Peter Harnich, Gerritt Stenmetts, John De Kries, Sr., John De Kries, Jr., Claes Maunde, John Stratemaker, Staaes De Groot, Aream Lammatees, Lamont Ariannius, Huybert Gerryts, Johannes Gerryts, Ede Van Vorst, Cornelius Lammerts.

A vast tract of land immediately west of Haverstraw was conveyed to Daniel Honan and Michael Hawdon, January 25, 1696. Adjoining this on the south were certain tracts containing 2,000 acres which were granted to Samuel Bayard. The Indian deed for this and other purchases was covered by Lucas Tenhoven and embraced 100,000 acres, for which no patent was issued.

Between the Haverstraw lands and the township of Orange was the rocky bluff known as Verdrietig Hook, including Rockland Lake, which became the subject of controversy between the John Hutchins Company and Jarvis Marshal & Company, both parties having obtained deeds, but that of the latter proved to be of prior date (Sept. 27, 1694). A few years later, in 1708, a patent was issued to Lancaster Syrus, Robert Walters and Hendrick Ten Eyck, covering the vacant river point described as beginning at the south bounds of Haverstraw, extending west to Welch's island, thence southerly to the lower end of the island, thence east to the creek running from the pond of Verdrietig Hook, and thence north to the place of beginning, "except the grant of Honan & Hawdon."

Ruttenber and Clark's history states that the indicated foregoing patents covered the entire district from the New Jersey line to New Paltz and west to the line of the Shawangunk Mountains.

Here is the proper place for some statements made by David Barclay in his paper on Balmville read before the Newburgh Historical Society in 1899. He said that Captain John Evans in 1694 obtained from Colonel Fletcher, then Governor of New York, a patent for a tract of land on the west shore of the Hudson, extending from Stony Point to the south line of New Paltz, and westward to the Shawangunk Mountains, including two-thirds of Orange County and parts of Ulster and Rockland Counties, and estimated to contain 650,000 acres. The only settlement thereon at that time was that of Major Gregorie's heirs and followers at Murderer's Creek in the present towns of Cornwall and New Windsor. The patent was afterward annulled by an act of the assembly, which was confirmed, and the title reverted to the crown. Included in these lands must have been those unjustly transferred to Evans in 1694 by Governor Dongan "under the title of the lordship of the manor of Fletcherdom." Ruttenber says that the Evans patents, with others, were for a long time a disturbing element, and were entirely undefined except in general terms.

Near the close of the 17th century there was active competition in the extinguishment {sic} of the Indian titles and obtaining patents, and several patents were granted. Three of them, to associations, were issued at the following dates: Chesekook, December 30, 1702; Wawayanda, March 5, 1703; Minisink, August 28, 1704.

The Chesekook patent was included in a purchase from five Indian proprietors to Dr. John Bridges, Henry Ten Eyck, Derick Vandenburgh, John Cholwell, Christopher Dean, Lancaster Syms and John Merritt. The Wawayanda patent was a purchase from twelve Indians by the same parties, and five more, namely, Daniel Honan, Philip Rokeby, Benjamin Aske, Peter Mathews and Cornelius Christianse. The Minisink patent was to Mathew Ling, Ebenezer Wilson, Philip French, Derick Vandenburgh, Stephen De Lancey, Philip Rokeby, John Corbett, Daniel Honan, Caleb Cooper, William Sharpass, Robert Milward, Thomas Wearham, Lancaster Syms, John Pearson, Benjamin Aske, Petrus Bayard, John Cholwell, Peter Fanconier, Henry Swift, Hendrick Ten Eyck, Jarvis Marshall, Ann Bridges, George Clark.

This last purchase was of parts of Orange and Ulster Counties, beginning in Ulster at Hunting House, on the northeast of Bashe's land, running thence north to the Fishkill River, thence southerly to the south end of Great Minisink Island, thence south to the land granted John Bridges & Company (Wawayanda), and along that patent northward and along the patent of John Evans to the place of beginning. There is no record that the purchasers received a deed from the Indians, and it was reported, probably correctly, that when Depuis obtained the Minisink lands from the Indians, he got them drunk and never paid them the money agreed upon—treatment which they resented for a long time afterward in hostility to the white settlers.

The Chesekook patent was bounded north by the patent line of Evans, west by Highland Hills, south by Honan and Hawdon's patent, and east by "the lands of the bounds of Haverstraw and the Hudson."

The Wawayanda patent was bounded eastward by "the high hills of the Highlands" and the Evans patent, north by the division line of the counties of Orange and Ulster, westward by "the high hills eastward of Minisink" and south by the division line of New York and New Jersey.

The boundary lines of the three patents were defined in such general terms that for a long time they caused trouble as to titles, and in the final adjustment the territory claimed by the Wawayanda patentees was cut off, while on the west a tract called the Minisink angle, embracing 130,000 acres, was formed.

The English government began investigating the patents of such immense tracts in 1698, and the next year caused the Evans patent to be annulled, after which the territory covered by it was conveyed in small tracts issued at different times up to 1775. These conveyances, exclusive of those outside of the present county, were as follows:

1. Roger and Pinhorne Mompesson, 1000 acres, March 4th, 1709.2. Ebenezer Wilson and Benjamin Aske, 2000 acres, March 7th, 1709.3. Rip Van Dam, Adolph Phillipse, David Provost, Jr., Lancaster Symes and Thomas Jones, 3000 acres, March 23, 1709.4. Gerardus Beekman, Rip Van Dam, Adolph Phillipse, Garrett Brass, Servas Vleerborne, and Daniel Van Vore, 3000 acres, March 24th, 1709.5. Peter Matthews, William Sharpas, and William Davis, 2000 acres, Sept. 8th, 1709.6. William Chambers and William Southerland, 1000 acres, Sept. 22, 1709.7. Samuel Staats, June 5th, 1712.8. Henry Wileman and Henry Van Bael, 3000 acres, June 30th, 1712.9. Archibald Kennedy, 1200 acres, Aug. 11th, 1715.10. Alexander Baird, Abner Van Vlacque, and Hermanus Johnson, 6000 acres, Feb. 28th, 1716.11. Jeremiah Schuyler, Jacobus Van Courlandt, Frederick Phillipse, William Sharpas, and Isaac Bobbin, 10000 acres, Jan. 22d, 1719.12. Edward Gatehouse, 1000 acres, Jan. 22, 1719.13. Cornelius Low, Gerard Schuyler, and John Schuyler, 3292 acres, March 17th, 1719.14. Thomas Brazier, 2000 acres, March 17th, 1719.15. Phineas McIntosh, 2000 acres, April 9th, 1719.16. John Lawrence, 2772 acres, April 9th, 1719.17. John Haskell, 2000 acres, April 9th, 1719.18. James Alexander, 2000 acres, April 9th, 1719.19. Cadwallader Colden, 2000 acres, April 9th, 1719.20. David Galatian, 1000 acres, June 4th, 1719.21. Patrick McKnight, 2000 acres, July 7th, 1719.22. Andrew Johnston, 2000 acres, July 7th, 1719.23. Melchoir Gilles, 300 acres, Oct. 8th, 1719.24. German Patent, 2190 acres, Dec. 18th, 1719.25. John Johnston, Jr., two tracts, Feb. 3d, 1720.26. Thomas Noxon, 2000 acres, May 25th, 1720.27. William Huddleston, 2000 acres, June 2d, 1720.28. Vincent Matthews, 800 acres, June 17th, 1720.29. Richard Van Dam, 1000 acres, June 30th, 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, 1720.32. Patrick Mac Gregorie, two tracts, 660 acres, Aug. 6th, 1720.33. Mary Ingoldsby and her daughter, Mary Pinhorne, and Mary Pinhorne and Wm. Pinhorne, her children, two tracts, 5360 acres, Aug. 11th, 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, 1721.36. 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 Graham, and John Haskell, 5600 acres, July 10th, 1714.44. William Bull and Richard Gerrard, 2600 acres, Aug. 10th, 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, 4000 acres, Jan. 11th, 1727.49. William Bradford, 2000 acres, Sept. 1st, 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. 18th, 1731.53. Thomas Smith, 1000 acres. May 8th, 1732.54. Daniel Everett and James Stringhani, 3850 acres, Jan. 17th, 1736.55. Elizabeth Denne, 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. 12th, 1736.58. Thomas Ellison, three tracts, 2000 acres. May 13th, 1737.59. Joseph Sackett, five tracts, 2000 acres, Sept. 1st, 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, 1750.67. 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. 1st, 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, 1761.74. 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. 23rd, 1762.77. Peter Hassenclever, March 25th, 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 Sidney, 3210 acres, 1772.81. Thomas Moore and John Osborne, 2000 acres, March 14th, 1775.82. Henry Townsend, 2000 acres.