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History of Orange County
Town of Newburgh
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This individual, when a boy of sixteen or eighteen years of age, went out with the militia two or three times during the war to Mombacus and other places along the mountains, against the Indians. Such boys always make men valuable to the country and reliable in the hour of danger, and deserve a special remembrance is the annals of the Republic. He died April 9,1830, aged seventy-one years, in a good old age—regretted by all who knew him as a worthy citizen, and lamented by a numerous family. He was the father of twelve children,—and his cousin, Daniel Gidney, deceased, of the same number.
We must not condemn Mr. Gidney for doing a foolish act when he framed his four houses at Saw Pits, brought them here and set them up. It must be recollected, his four sons were married and had families—that they were planting themselves in an unsettled region, where there were no mills to saw the timber of the locality—that workmen were few, difficult to be procured, and that the time of the year may have been pressing. The place at which they were made was old settled—had all the conveniences to enable the families to execute the work—and Mr. Gidney, doubtless a man of means,—and transportation neither difficult nor expensive—the whole transaction may have been both judicious, timely and economical. Such things transpire in our day, for we know the parsonage house of the 1st Presbyterian Church in the village of Montgomery was framed in Newburgh and carried out there in wagons, and put up in 1844. Why this? The timber was cheaper in Newburgh, and the individual who had the contract, with his workmen, lived there.
In 1776 the timber to build barracks at Poplopen’s Kill, and houses for laborers while erecting Forts Clinton and Montgomery, was taken from this County and transported there on the ice from New Windsor. The old frame house which stood on time bank of the turnpike, at the dug-way as it enters the village of Newburgh, was framed at Montgomery, brought down and set up there.
In the division of some lands in time patent belonging to the Millers and Van Keurens, the choice of lots was given to the owner who erected the first house. Mr. Miller had means, negroes, and workmen, and secured the choice of lots by the erection of that frame. Before an individual can be condemned for any act that appears unusual, and not according to the ordinary transaction of affairs, we must know the whole case, and the exact condition of circumstances calculated to control and produce it.
The district of country along the public highway from the village of Newburgh to Marlborough was among the earliest settled portions of the town. The land is principally in the patents to Harrison and Wallace. At the brook beyond Powelton Mr. William Bloomer, the ancestor of the families of that name, resided in 1776; but whether the first settler of that name we cannot say. He was a blacksmith, and conducted that business.
At Balmville Michael Demott lived as early as 1764, and kept tavern, and the town meetings were occasionally held at his house. He had a number of children, among whom were William, Jacobus and Isaac, who inherited the estate, consisting of several hundred acres. It passed out of *his hands to a Mr. Ellis, in New York, from whose heirs Mr. Daniel Wilson purchased.
Further north were the Dentons—James, Thomas and Gilbert. These were here in 1764, at the organization of the town. Their father was the first settler of the name. Their lands are now in part owned by Mr. F. J. Betts.
Above them was Burrows Holmes as early as 1763, and one of the first path masters of the town.
Next to him was Samuel Fowler, the father of Samuel Fowler, the Methodist minister of the last generation, a very devout and pious man—also in 1763.
Next were the fathers of Arthur Smith, Esq., and Jehiel Clark. Their fathers purchased their lands together at 17s. 6d per acre, and divided.
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*Errata--read their