Historical Record 1798-1808, Page 1

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="0a5d05a3.jpg"> <div> Orange County, New York</div> <div> American History and Genealogy Project</div> <div> Historical Record 1798-1808, Page 1</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="0a6d2123.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/orange/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/or"><U>Orange County AHGP/ALHN</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state/"><U>New York AHGP/ALHN</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://ahgp.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://ahgp.org"><U>AHGP</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://alhn.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://alhn.org"><U>ALHN</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="623" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 725 WIDTH="617"><div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Tahoma" >  </FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Tahoma" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT>THE<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > erection of the first Church building in any community is a great event.  It was especially so in Chester when our present organization built and dedicated its first local, habitation in 1798.  It had been in the minds of the people to erect a house of worship long before the Revolutionary war broke out.  They had even hewn and drawn some of the logs when the call to arms forced them to lay down the adz and take up the rifle.</FONT></div> <div>      The bugle had sounded a call for the defence of their civil liberty.  They answered it as became the men who lived in the land of the Pilgrim fathers.  God gave them victory; made their land free and independent, and they came back to finish the work in gratitude which had been so splendidly begun before they went away.</div> <div>      The Church society had taken on various forms and had passed through many trying experiences before its final entrance into the General Assembly Presbyterian Church in 1813.  It began in a very humble way.  It was the custom of these early settlers to meet for worship in the houses of the different families.  When the little log school-house was erected it became the centre of interest and all meetings, religious and political, were held there.  There were, no doubt, some among these earliest settlers about Chester who held their membership in the Churches at Blooming Grove, Goshen, and other points. Rev. Simeon R. Jones, leaves this on record when he settled in Chester as the first Pastor in 1799. “I found five females in Chester who were members of adjoining Churches and one praying man, Willam Vail.”  We are curious, therefore, to find out all we can as to the character of these early settlers since such a few of them have developed a very tenacious purpose to build a Church.</div> <div>      As early as 1704 we find one, Daniel Cromline, purchasing an interest in the Wawayanda patent.  He was a merchant in the vicinity of New York, but was anxious to open up the territory he had secured in the vicinity of Grey Court and Chester.  In 1716 he secured the services of a young English mason, William Bull, to build what is known as the “Old Greycourt House” on the road between Chester and Craigville.  The increase of settlers was not very rapid, but we find few families still living here like the Bulls, Durlands, Carpenters, Drakes, Roes, Seelys, Yelvertons, Holberts and Jacksons, who trace the settlement of their ancestors in Chester and vicinity to many years before the Revolutionary War.</div> <div>      Mr. Alfred Roe, an elder in the Church, and a sketch of whom is found in this volume, and who represents a large relationship in this vicinity has definite knowledge that his great grandfather purchased their present farm in 1751.  Charles R. Bull, a most genial, helpful Churchman of the Presbyterians, represents a large relationship descended from William Bull.  It is conceded, also, that John Yelverton settled in the village of Chester and laid out the plot for the town as early as 1751, and that the Durland family was on the ground as early as 1756.</div> <div>      English blood was evidently the first on the field, or predominated sufficiently later to give the name Chester to the town.  Thus we find English, Welch and Scotch blood as the foundation of the settlement of Chester, and the elements which struggled through nearly half a century of adversity before they could plant a house of worship in their midst.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="pg7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Historical Record 17981808, Page 2"><U>Next Page</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="pg1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Table of Contents"><U>Table of Contents</U></A></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>