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History of Orange County
Town of Newburgh
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Middle Hope.—A small village four miles north of Newburgh, and formerly called Middletown, because halfway between Newburgh and Marlborough. This accounts for half the name. There was a village called Middletown in the town of Walkill; and two of the same name in the county created confusion in the post office department, and the post master ordered the name of this one changed. The citizens of the village and vicinity met in public meeting to change the name. Many were proposed and rejected, and finally Mr. James P. Brown of this village, recollecting that there was a village in the land of his boyhood, in Scotland, near which he was born, by the name of Hope, proposed the name of Middle Hope, which was favorably received and adopted by the meeting.
Rossville.—A small district of country eight miles north of Newburgh, and so named from Alexander Ross, Esq., who resided there, and the principal patron of the place. The settlement of this locality by Mr. Robert Ross, the father of William and Alexander Ross has been previously mentioned.
The Dans Kammer.—A high promontory on the Hudson, near the Ulster line. This name is very pure Dutch. Dans means dance, and Kammer means chamber, and the translation into good English is Dance Chamber. The tradition is, that the crew of Hendrick Hudson, as they passed up the river saw the Indians dancing at this place, and they appeared so hideous and frightful, that they exclaimed “De Duyfels Dans Kammer !“ the Devil’s Dance Chamber. This exclamation was natural and the name appropriate and highly expressive. Tradition insists that this is the true name, and the circumstance under which it was bestowed.
New Mills.—A small village on the turnpike, one mile west of Newburgh, and so called from the erection of a large Flour Mill at the place by the Messrs. Belknap. The mill is supplied with water from the Orange Lake, and with a large part of the village, is owned by William H. Beede, an enterprising and active citizen.
This mill, with its contents, consisting of several hundred bushels of grain of various kinds, was consumed by fire on 6th of October, 1846. The whole loss was judged to be $7,000. Mr. Beede was insured for $5,000. The fire doubtless was the work of an incendiary. Though the calamity was sufficient to overwhelm ordinary men and deter them from again improving the spot, yet Mr. Beede has again erected a new building of brick on the old foundation, in the hopes of gaining some security against the felonious hand of the midnight villain.
Gardnertown.—A small settlement and district of county, four miles north-west from the village of Newburgh, and so called from an old and numerous family by the name of Gardiner, who resided there, many of whose descendants gill live there and in the vicinity.
There is a tradition that old Silas Gardner, the ancestor of the family, was not so friendly to the struggle of the States as some others—during the Revolutionary war, received £200 to convey a lady by the name of Powell, wife of a British officer, across the lines into Canada—that the straw brought back in his carriage contained the seeds of the Canada thistle, and was the first specimen of that troublesome plant seen in this county, which flourished there luxuriantly for many years.