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History of Orange County
Town of Montgomery
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Village of Montgomery and Vicinity.—In 1738, Henry Crist, Stevanus Crist and Matthias Miltzpatch purchased of William Sharpus of the city of New York, (a patentee of the ten thousand acre tract) five hundred and forty-two acres.— This land lies on the north side of the Walkill, opposite to the present village of Montgomery and a little back of the stream. The Lot known as the Crist Mill Lot, of two hundred acres, was purchased before. This land is among the best in quality in the town. The proprietors divided the purchase soon after and instantly began to clear and cultivate. These individuals were from Germany, and here laid the foundation of a very extensive improvement. Their family descendents are among the most numerous and respectable in the town. The early Dutch and German settlers were strong, large and athletic, frugal and industrious, and very soon became possessed of competence and wealth.— Some of these lands remain in the possession of descendents of the original purchasers. These, with other emigrants, in a few years covered the valley of the Walkill. As before remarked, the Dutch, Germans and Huguenots were the early settlers along the valley; and they confined themselves chiefly to the north and west of the stream, from which they disseminated farther and farther to the west, till they crossed what is called Comfort’s Hills and entered the present town of Crawford. They scarcely ventured to locate out of sight of the Walkill or occupy any of the high or hilly land on either side, till the low lands were exhausted and it became a matter of necessity.
There were three old settlers by the name of Crist. One was Henry, who had but one son, Jacob, the father of William, Jacob and Henry. William died without issue; Jacob was drowned in the Hudson, going to or returning from the city of New York, where he had been to get his wedding clothes; and thus Henry Crist, deceased, of the last generation, heired all the property with one half of the mill lot.
Another was named Stevanus, the father of Christian, Jonathan, Simeon and David. The lands possessed by Stevanus are now owned by Joseph V. Whalen, Esq., who took them by devise from his father, Dr. Joseph Whalen, deceased.
The third was *— Crist, the father of Martinas and William Crist of the last generation. His lands are now owned by Mr. William P. Decker.
Henry Crist, the first purchaser, built at the foot of the hill, east of the Dutch Church and north of the turnpike, where there used to be an old orchard recollected by some of this generation. His son Jacob, built on the hill opposite the village of Montgomery at the mill, where his son Henry resided the whole of his life. The site is now occupied by the new and beautiful residence of Daniel W. Waring, Esq. We believe this Jacob Crist built what is commonly called Crist’s Mill, at the village, but at what time we are unable to state.
Stevanus Crist built his first house about half way from the end of the bridge to the present residence of Joseph V. Whalen, Esq. Here the town meetings at the first organization of the town used to be held; and there the turnpike gate, now removed west and called **Hasbrouck's gate, first stood at the completion of the road.
The third, by the name of *— Crist, built on the farm now owned, as above stated, by Wm. P. Decker.
James Ward owned two hundred acres, the present site of the village of Montgomery. We do not know the date of the purchase or when he located. He built the first Log Mill at the place, as early as the organization of the town in 1768, the site of which is now occupied by the Messrs. Luquer‘s. The bank there was very high and steep, and the mill being at the water’s edge was difficult to approach. The grain bags were either thrown down from the bank into the mill door and up again, or let down and up by a rude swing or tackle. This mill was built before Crist’s, on the opposite side of the stream; for, though the date of the erection of neither of them is accurately known, yet, when the water is low and the bed of the stream exposed, there is still to be seen a row of stones reaching down from the opposite bank toward. Ward’s Mill, calculated to throw the force of the water in that direction in time of drought, which would not have been permitted if Crist’s Mill had then been built. There is an old eel wear below these mills, extending from side to side of the stream in an angling direction down it till the sides meet in the centre, which was there at the settlement of the town, now owned by the family of Rockefellers, the title to which is derived from the Indians. At that time there was a tribe of Indians residing on the west side of the kill and in the immediate vicinity of the Crist purchase, which remained there till about the time of the old French war in 1755-6. Mr. Henry Crist, recently dead, remembered to have seen some of them when a small boy.
Mr. Ward, to enable the resident settlers on the west side of the kill to come to his mill at all seasons of the year, built a rude bridge over the stream. This was the first bridge in all this vicinity. It was called Ward’s Bridge, and, as the village grew up, it gave name to the place. This bridge was rebuilt by the town in 1777, and again in 1790, when the town paid £1, 6s, out of the dog tax for the rum drank at the raising. Its place is now occupied by the turnpike bridge.
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*Errata--read Laurens Crist,**Errata--read Hornbrook's gate,