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History of Orange County
Town of Newburgh
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Hampton.—A landing on the Hudson six or seven miles north of Newburgh, where there is a regular ferry across to Hamburgh in Dutchess county. The bank of the river at this place is high and sloping, and the farm and residence of Mr. John C. Storm, on the heights back of the landing is very beautiful and romantic, with a fine prospect. The name is from Hampton Court, England. The whole word is Saxon: the first half Hamp, is from Ham, which means house or farm. Our word “home” comes from it, and is also used in “hamlet.” The other half ton, is the common adjunct used in that language in the formation of names of places, etc., and comes from dune, which means a kill or a highland; from ton comes town, and from dune, downs. We have no doubt this is the true derivation of the name, and it perplexed us much to find it. The name is easy to pronounce, and falls pleasantly upon the ear. The very sound expresses elevation. It means “a house or farm on a hill”
The Hudson River.—This river was named after the discoverer, Hendrick Hudson. He did not name it after himself. It was so called several years after his death by common consent. The Dutch called it the North River, to distinguish it from the Delaware, which they called South River. Hudson discovered them both. Hudson called it the Great River or Great River of the Mountains. The Iroquois Indians called it Cahohatatea, and the Mohicans, Mahakeneghtuc, and also, Shatemuck. We cannot but laud the durable nature and unbounded usefulness of this stream. The whole length does not exceed some 250 miles, and is navigable for large craft for more than half that distance—a fact that cannot be affirmed of any other river on the globe. It has not its equal for free and unobstructed navigation, as far as our knowledge extends, its length and magnitude considered. There is not a bar, shoal or island, which impedes its course through the whole extent of its navigable route, except the bar near Albany. During the year half the commerce of the country floats up and down its waters. To improve it and remove the bar near Albany, Congress recently granted the sum of *$75,000. This shows the subject has been viewed in its proper light by our statesmen of the North and West; by whose votes the grant was effected. The great and growing commerce of the Empire State, with the Empire West, demanded the appropriation. The great magnitude of the interests at stake requires a full experiment to remove this bar, or deepen the water upon it. If this cannot be permanently done, some other remedy must be devised, by locking round it, or canaling thence to Albany.
Orange Lake.—We did not know, till recently, that this sheet of water was called by this name, and it is somewhat desirous to observe how often the name has been changed. —We cannot learn that it ever had an Indian name, though we think it ought to have had one. The first we knew it by was Bennin Water, so called by the Dutch, which means a “water between other waters, or, a water within land.” Though Dutch it is a beautiful and highly poetic name, and we could wish for the honor of our ancestors and the beauty of their language that the water bore it still. The next in order of time was Mouse Pond, and so called from a man of that name, an old settler, who located on the east side of the pond, after the Dutch abandoned their settlement on the German Patent.
It was also called Machen’s Pond. Captain Machen first opened the outlet of the pond, and erected a manufactory to make coppers for change and circulation. The outlet composes a large part of Chamber’s Creek, which supplies the New Mills and other manufacturing establishments with water. This outlet was originally the place where the waters of the pond ran off at high water. The natural one is further west at a place called Pine Point, and the stream from the pond crosses the turnpike just east of Mr. Nathaniel Brewster, between five and six miles from Newburgh.
Capt. Machen, we believe was an Englishman, and came out before the Revolution as an officer in the British service. During the war he entered the American army as an engineer, and was employed by Congress in 1777, in erecting fortifications in the Highlands, and in stretching the chain across the river at West Point, as appears from the national records of that time. After the war he came and located at the pond. His operations there, as they were conducted in secret, were looked upon at that time with suspicion, as illegal and wrong. Capt. Machen, of the war of 1812, was a son of this gentleman.
It was also called Big Pond in distinction to Little Pond in New Windsor. The pond is a favorite fishing ground at the proper season for the sport, for a large district of country around it—one hundred persons having been upon it in one day, in boats furnished by those residing on the banks of the pond. While it is a source of amusement to some, it is of profit to others. The world lives upon just such traffic.
We believe the honor of the present name is due the State Geologists, and we are much obliged by the dignity conferred—changing into a Lake what has always heretofore been considered a Pond, by those who know it longest and best. This is a great country and marvellously progressive, in the magnification of names and things. We would be further obliged by these gentlemen, and most willingly acknowledge the obligation, if they would increase the number and magnitude of the fish in the Lake, but the quality of the water they will please leave the same as now.
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*This bill was vetoed by the President on the ground of want of funds in the treasury.