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History of Orange County
Towns of Goshen, Hamptonburgh and Chester
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TOWN OF HAMPTONBURGH.
Decker's.-This is a small settlement in a beautiful part of the country, on the road from Washingtonville to Goshen.- At this place the Messrs. Decker have had a cloth manufactory for many years. The locality and vicinity were settled as early perhaps as 1730; for shortly after that time in 1744, it was a missionary station, under the care of the London Missionary Society, with New Windsor and St. Andrews.- We refer the reader to our history of St. Andrew's Church. At that time it was called “St. David's Corners,”-that being the name of the Episcopal Church there. The building was put up after 1770, but never finished, and during the Revolutionary war was used as a hospital by the Americans. Shortly after that it was partly blown over, and permitted to go to decay and was never rebuilt. The church authority is still in possession of the location and burying ground. Vincent Matthews, Esq., was an early patron of this church, and after him, Mr. Jonathan Brooks performed many kind and beneficial offices to preserve and perpetuate the establishment, by the payment of its debts, etc. These gentlemen lived in that vicinity. The name of the former has nearly run out in the county, while the descendents of the latter are numerous and respectable. Messrs. John I. Brooks of Bloominggrove, and Fletcher M. Brooks of this town are of this family.
Purgatory.-At that place, about a mile east of Heard's, and for some distance round, there was a kind of dismal swamp of considerable extent, through which ran a small, sluggish stream. Over this there was a log bridge with a causeway on each side. We believe that Mr. Peter Bull, now dead, who lived just east of the bridge and owned a large portion of the swamp, had the honor of this appropriate cognomen. This old gentleman was quite a free-thinker, and a great lover of nature in all her various works, but did not fear Purgatory much, as a place of spiritual punishment. We are indebted to this gentleman for many articles which make up our paper. Mr. Bull fancifully gave out that he lived in Paradise, as his residence and farm were pleasantly situated on the sunny side of the dismal swamp-that the country over the stream and beyond the swamp was the world at large; and of course it was necessary for all persons who come from thence to his place, to pass through Purgatory. Such was the allegory which gave origin to the name. No person who was acquainted with this locality forty or fifty years since, could rationally object to the propriety of the name, for it was very like Purgatory, a place easy to get in-but difficult to get out of; and to express the dark, dangerous and spectral nature of the locality, and his contempt of the fears of purgatory as a place of punishment, he named it as we have stated. The bridge and swamp are called by the same name.
La Grange.-A small settlement and village on the state road leading from Montgomery to Goshen, about four miles North to the latter place. It was formerly called Goosetown. At the early settlement of the county, raising geese was very common and necessary as well as profitable. We cannot lie down without complimenting the value of this domestic animal, for its product is a real luxury. The great quantity raised in this locality and vicinity was so notorious and publicly known, that by common consent the people called the place Goosetown. This was easy and natural etymology and no one who knew the facts would question its truthfulness or quarrel with its propriety. But in process of time the business of raising geese, like the growing of many other articles went down; whether owing to a proper want of protection by tariff or otherwise we cannot say, and the name became not only inappropriate, but carried an imputation against the good sense and respectability of the inhabitants. In this respect their sufferings became intolerable, and to place themselves in what they supposed a deserving point of view before the public, they determined to right themselves by the means within their power. This was commendable, and we here approbate their proper sense of pride and dignity in the matter. It is both legally and philosophically true, that when the cause ceases the effect ought to cease also. In pursuance of this design, and to escape from a false and slandered condition, shortly after the visit of La Fayette to this county, the inhabitants of the town met together, and by universal suffrage passed resolutions that the place should no more be known by Goosetown, but by La Grange, which was in honor of the paternal residence of Gen. La Fayette. We have never heard a complaint of the good sense and wisdom of the measure. We wonder, as at a thing passing strange, that Oxford, England, did not, three centuries ago, rise as one man, in all the pride and unsurpassed dignity of her twenty colleges of learning, disown her name, and assume another, more befitting her fame and wide spread reputation.
Heard's.-A place on the public road from Newburgh to Goshen, four miles from the latter village. It has its name from Mr. Charles Heard, who keeps an inn at the place.- This person is a capital landlord-accommodating, merry and witty. In addition to his creature comforts, he furnishes also large accommodations for dealers in stock. The place is also called Bull's Head, from the fact that Heard's sign has the likeness of that animal painted on it. Barring the painting of the noble animal, all is expressive of, and in good keeping with, the business conducted there. The stock growers of the county make large purchases of cattle at this place during the year, which they convert into beef, and send to market. It is also called Hamptonburgh for the reason previously stated.