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History of Orange County
Town of Newburgh
Page 40
The deeds performed by our immediate ancestors truly ennobled them. Their patents were from heaven, and the race of mankind will yet acknowledge them to have been genuine. The best blood of continental Europe in one commingled stream, now warms and animates the sons of free-men here: and looking round upon the institutions of this glorious and happy land, with a pious thought for our ancestors, ought we not to be content? They sprang from the private and more humble walks of life, where it had been their fate to be persecuted and oppressed by immemorial usage. They were of that class who had fought for centuries the battle fields of Europe, plied the mechanic arts, or cultivated the soil for the pleasure and support of the higher orders. They were of that class where industry, virtue and forbearance have ever been found on earth among men and nations; and where a sigh for freedom, and a condition in life dawned upon by brighter hopes for the future, was often heard to escape from honest and patriot hearts. Casting behind their regrets for the land of their fathers, and as if constrained by a dire necessity, with which no farther compromise could be made, they braved the hidden dangers of the ocean, the deep howl of the tempest, and came to these shores pilgrims and strangers in search of a better country. These were our fathers and mothers, and we revere their memory. Some of them, or their immediate descendants, will be noticed in our paper.
It does not follow that an individual is unworthy of remembrance because he has not sacked a city, nor slain his thousands—has not sat in high places, and controlled the national councils, discovered a star, nor owned the fee of an estate. On the contrary, those who have done all they reasonably could in the stations they occupied in private or public affairs, may have exerted an influence as permanently beneficial in a thousand ways, as those in more elevated situations. The question is not, How much good have they accomplished? or, What great actions have they achieved?— but have they employed to reasonable advantage their limited means, and ever been equal to the parts assigned them? The sun in his splendor may throw off his golden beams to illumine, vivify and fructify the earth during the day, but what of the beauty and solemn grandeur of the night without the pale lustre of the moon, and all the varied garniture of the smaller lights which so wisely and beneficently adorn it? The heavenly bodies are not all equally large and magnificent, but each performs its duty in the sphere assigned it.
In the language of Mr. Webster, “It is wise for us to recur to the history of our ancestors.” The first settlers of a country impart tone and character to its institutions, and the habits and manners of the people, which are seen and felt for many succeeding years. Lessons of wisdom are drawn as well from the ignoble as the noble—from the ant as from the elephant. For our ancestors we claim no particular exemption from human frailty and vices incident to all conditions. Like all others they were of good and bad character, with a large proportion of the virtuous class. If, on looking them over and counting them up, we occasionally encounter the positively bad, they are not to be thrown from the catalogue on that account, with the hope of covering up true parentage, lest the chain of descent he broken. It is our business to learn lessons of usefulness from all, and express our gratitude. The conduct of bad men teach the young lessons, oftentimes valuable and enduring. The general course of the good and vicious are beacons along the path of life, one to be sought out and run to for safety and protection, the other, to be known and avoided.
In our reflections upon the character and conduct of our forefathers, there is much that is personal and agreeable to the feelings. We own and adopt them as members of the family, think, speak of, and dote on them as nearly allied to us, though not one drop of their blood deepens the color of our own. We share their respect and renown, and glory in their fame. We appropriate them to ourselves and make them ours. We feel as they felt, pity and weep over their hardships and misfortunes. The characters contemplated may not all be as pure and unexceptionable as the most fastidious could desire, still we must take the agreeable with that which is less so, not extenuate or set down aught in malice, and hold them up to public view as a father who, while he laments the conduct of a wayward child, points the minds of the other children to the example, as one to be avoided and shunned.
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JAMES RENWICK, above named, built the dock, and did business at what is now called Norris’s dock, at the south part of the village. He possessed the farm now owned by Capt. Robinson, formerly Judge Gardner. This individual was enterprising, noble-minded, a pretty free liver, 4 withal, not over fond of money. To interest the farmer of the county in his new establishment, and build it up as a place of business, he was in the habit of giving deeds for small lots in the vicinity of the dock, to his customers, without consideration, and when they would refuse to take them, as they often did, on the ground of being of no value to them, tendered them to their children with the assurance they would be worth something in their day. Some ten years ago, when water lots were in demand in the village, enquiry was made for the owners of the Renwick lots, and after great search many of them were found, who never knew, or had forgotten that they owned such valuable property. In this there was a wise forecast of mind, mingled with the kindest good will on the part of Mr. Renwick, and an example not frequently found in our day.