1600s-1812 Dutchess County NY history genealogy lore bk

• It was 1624 before Cornells May brought thirty families to Fort Orange (Nassau) and to another small fort on the Delaware. Next year came the three ships carrying cattle and sheep, and more families shepherded by Director Verhulst and a passenger, Peter Minuit, who soon succeeded him. Minuit wisely concentrated the tiny settlements in Manhattan, which he purchased from the Indian tribe for 60 guilders. Legend has come to laugh at the bargain, but it ranks high among later deals by comparison, and it initiated the honest Dutch custom of peaceable purchase and legal occupancy, things which other Americans soon forgot to remember.

• The familiar list of petty crimes and misdemeanors increased with the population. Drinking was so universal that it went unmentioned in the indictments; but it must have been a frequent cause, for Dutchess legends point to the use of hard liquor and apple jack. The cocktail was invented here or hereabouts. Tavernkeepers abused their position, and a licensing system was begun. As leaders of the farmers, often Justices, centers of information and discussion, the taverners were of great influence. Apparently they met the demand of the community with fair success, for few offenders were charged. One of them gave drink to a minor; another permitted the playing of cards "in an outhouse"; a third kept a billiard table, which was specifically forbidden along with shuffle-board and other games. In Prendergast's troubles, the taverns were invariably the rioters' rendezvous.

• The Dutch Livingstons may be taken as typical of the Dutchess temperament. Patriotic and conservative, they supported the Federalist party at first, changing to Clinton in later years. One of them, Peter R. Livingston, led a radical reform that greatly widened the suffrage though at the cost of the Conservative group. The family included such liberals as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her daughter Harriet Stanton Blatch. The abolitionist radical Gerrit Smith was one of them, who largely financed John Brown's raid. So, too, is Eleanor Roosevelt of today, in her own mother's line of descent.

• Neighborhoods were named over and over. Scarcely a village has its original name. Rhinebeck was at Pinks Corners in its beginning. Beacon was Fishkill-on-Hudson, and Fishkill Landing before that. Chelsea was first Low Point, as New Hamburg was High Point. Low Point became the classical Carthage, but gave up the high name when the Chelsea Company made it a condition of its coming that the Point should take the company's name. This was done, and the company then backed out. Dutchess has its share of odd names. There is Cotton Doll Road, attributed to two maiden ladies, who were doll's dressmakers. There is the Shunpike, by-passing the old toll pike from Amenia to Hart's Corners. There is Separate, and of course the Oblong, unintelligible without the story. There is the usual New England "Sodom Corners", like a gargoyle under the choir stall. Dog Tail Corners, too, Purgatory Hill, "halfway to nowhere", Eel Pot Corners. Hardscrabble (Red Hook), all the odd ones are to be found, vestiges of grim Yankee humor. The Dutch never thought names were funny, unless Spuyten Duyvil is humorously meant.

• Negroes in New Netherland were almost exclusively in the service of the West India Company and its officials. None of them had been brought directly from Africa. They were the prize found in captured Spanish ships. They were well treated, so far as records tell. On one occasion, when a group of slaves had killed one of their number, a lot was held, and one great chap drew the fatal short slip. Twice he was hanged and twice his weight and strong neck broke the rope, whereupon the crowd cried "Mercy", and he was reprieved.

• The Albany sheriff, Yates, next arrested a Yankee and was himself caught and added to the Springfield jail-boarders. Michael Hallenbeck was soon officially appointed to protect Yankee rights, and Noble made a captain of militia. Open warfare resulted. New York's De Lancey took up the fight as Lt. Governor, realizing that all this was linked up with the Philipse Patent and its troubles. He conferred more authority upon Sheriff Yates, who with a larger force put Noble to flight, and captured Loomis. William Rees, Yankee tenant by attornment, was killed. Massachusetts offered a reward of 100 for the arrest of his "murderer". A month later, in May, 1755, John Van Gelder, son of an Indian and a white woman, joined Noble in a raid of revenge at Ancram, where the whole force of skilled workmen were carried off from Livingston's furnace and kept as hostages.