Page 51
History of Orange County
Town of Newburgh
Page 51
SELAH REEVE.—The father of this gentleman was Selah Reeve, who emigrated from England to Long Island in this Slate. From Long Island he removed to the town of Newburgh above Balmville, at an early period purchased a farm, and gave his attention to agriculture. We find him on the road lists of the town as early as 1785. He was the father of a numerous family, and one of the sons, James Reeve, was taken prisoner by the English during the war of 1812, carried to that country and confined in Dartmour prison. He was in the prison when the English troops fired upon the American prisoners, and killed many of them. This inhuman and unnecessary butchery of men, without any means of assault or defence, rendered the whole transaction infamous throughout this country. Reeve, however, was uninjured, and returned safe to this country. But not long after his return, being engaged around a lime kiln on fire, it bursted, and one of the sides fell on him in a heated state, and came near roasting him to death. He was injured by the accident, from which he did not fully recover, and in the course of a year died of consumption.
Selah Reeve, another son, commenced business at Hunting Grove—now Buskirk’s Mills—on the Otter Kill, in the town of New Windsor. This was about 1798-9. After a few years he returned to the village of Newburgh, and commenced the manufacture of brown earthen ware—much needed at the time, and valuable as household utensils, both to the rich and poor. We think this the first effort of the kind in this vicinity, if not in the county. We are aware that Doct. David R. Arnell, late of Goshen, conducted in 1804, a manufactory of the same article at Prospect Hill, near Scotchtown, in the town of Walkill. The probability is, these gentlemen were engaged in this business at or about the same time. We are of opinion, as a general principle, that the man who originates a new business in any department, productive of public good or private convenience, or who gives his time, talents and pecuniary means to a new and untried pursuit, is worthy of special note and remembrance. There is always a future, certain and enlarged public benefit, based on such efforts, which unobserved and silently disseminates its influences in a thousand ways over the face of community— productive of positive and substantial good;—the people at large, in the meantime, like the swine eating fruit beneath the tree, think not, nor care to enquire whence the benefaction comes. They have and enjoy it, and that is all they know or care about it. Those individuals who come in afterward, take up and pursue the business, with the experiment ready performed at their hands, in all its various departments, are worthy only of common praise; for it is a small matter to do that which has been previously executed in all its details.
From this manufacture Mr. Reeve entered into commercial business in the village, and continued it till the time of his death. He had the reputation of a man of integrity in his business, and died in the full confidence of the community in which he lived.