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History of Orange County
Town of Montgomery
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Village of Montgomery.—A small village on the Walkill, twelve miles west of Newburgh, and called after the town in which it is the principal village. It was formerly called Wardebridge. An old resident by the name of James Ward erected the first flour mill at the place, and built a bridge over the Walkill for the common benefit of himself and customers. This was called Ward’s bridge, and as the village grew up around it, it received the same name. Wardsbridge was the former name of the Post Office, but to produce certainty and uniformity in that department, the Postmaster changed it to Montgomery, and thus the village was changed from Wardsbridge to Montgomery.
Walden.—A pleasant little village at the high falls of the Walkill, four miles north of the village of Montgomery. It is a manufacturing village having the advantage of great water power. It was named after Mr. Jacob T. Walden, a great patron of the place, who owned the plot of land upon which the village stands and other lands in the vicinity.
Coldenham.—A small district of county on the Newburgh and Cochecton turnpike, about midway between Montgomery and Newburgh villages. The place is named after the families of the Coldens who lived there. It was named Coldengham in the patent to Cadwallader Colden.
St. Andrew’s.—A settlement in the north-east part of the town, and called so from an Episcopal church, formerly of that name, erected under the patronage of Peter Du Bois and others who endowed it with a parsonage. The church building is now worn out and taken down, and the congregation worship at Walden, where they have an edifice for the purpose. A history of this church is found in our paper.
Comfort’s Hills.—A range of high land running north and south, about two miles west of the village of Montgomery. The dividing line between the towns of Montgomery and Crawford runs along this range. It had its name from a number of old families by the name of Comfort, who lived on the west side of the hill, and still numerous in the vicinity.
Keisertown.—A settlement of Dutch people on the west bank of the Walkill, three miles from Montgomery, southwest and on the eastern slope of Comfort’s Hill. Though on the banks of the Walkill, in this republican county, we find ourselves unexpectedly in royal company—in the very presence of the Caesars! The name Keiser is of blood royal descent, direct from Caesar, and in the German means King or Caesar. An example: Keiserluter in the Lower Palatinate is Caesariopolis in Latin. The grand Emperor of Russia is a Keiser, and claims it by calling himself the Czar of all the Russias, which is nothing less than calling himself Caesar, King, Keiser in his own native Russ, the language of his country. This name, therefore, is good Dutch, and the emigrants imported it when they came. Keisertown, consequently, is an Imperial city, the town of a King, the city of Caesar. Scott Town.—A settlement on the Newburgh and Cochecton turnpike, four miles east of the village of Montgomery, where there used to be a turnpike gate. The place had its name from Mr. John Scott, who resided there for many years, now dead. Samuel Monell lived there, kept a store, and attended the gate.
Scott’s Corner.—A few houses at the corners where the road leading from Walden to Goshen, near the Goodwill or Walkill meeting house, crosses the turnpike one mile and a half east of the village of Montgomery. The place was named after Mr. John F. Scott, who lived and kept store on one of the corners made by said roads, but now deceased. He was a son of Mr. John Scott, previously named.
Tinbrook.—A small, rapid and fussy stream which enters the Walkill, half a mile below Walden. It is very long for a stream:—it rises in New Windsor, south of Coldenham, runs north, passes the turnpike just beyond the Coldenham stone house—continuing north, takes a bend to the west and enters the Walkill as above stated.
It was known on the town records by this name in 1774. We have some difficulty in deriving the name. Some say it got it from a man by the name of John Tinbrook, who lived upon it; others say it is made up of two Dutch words which mean Thin Breeches. This may be the true etymology of the name of the old gentleman mentioned above. If so, the old aphorism that “A light heart and a thin pair of breeches will carry a man through the world,” may have had some allusion to this man or some of his connections in the upward on downward line of descent. Mr. Irving in his history of New York, thinks it doubtful whether the Dutch word means thin breeches, or ten pair of breeches! We leave the point to be settled by the Literati of that language.
With due deference to Mr. Irving, we derive the name from two Saxon words: Tinn, which means thin or small, and Broc, which means running water less than a river.— Thus we have Tinn Broc corrupted into Tinbrook. This, doubtless, is the true etymology of the word.
The special reason for the name Tinn Broc, assigned by tradition is as follows The Dutch who settled Ulster, and the trait is a national one, preferred the low fat bottom lands when they could get them. One of the Dutch emigrants, wishing to locate some lands farther up the Walkill, left the Paltze, started up the stream and came to this brook, which he followed up to its source. On his return, he reported that the lands that he had seen, and those along the brook were thin lands—that is, they were not a deep fat soil—and, in allusion to this, they called the stream Tinn Broc. The name was thus descriptive of the lands through which it ran, as well as the width and depth of the brook.
Muddy Kill.—A small, sluggish stream which has its rise in the eastern slope of Comfort’s Hill, north of the turnpike, runs south, draining the meadows and lowlands in its course, and enters the Walkill between the German Reformed Church and Comfort’s Hill. The name is from the Dutch words Modder, which means slime or mud, and Kill, which means brook or stream of water—thus Modder Kill has been Anglicised into Muddy Kill. The English word is a true translation of the Dutch, and expresses the nature of the object.