Page 5
History of Orange County
Town of New Windsor
Page 5
About the same tune that William Ellison settled in the village of New-Windsor, his brother John settled the lands now owned by Maj. Morton, where he had a flour mill and store. All the grain for miles round, and as far west as the town or Montgomery, for family use, was ground or sold at this mill, for many years. Trading at his store was equally extensive at the time. Mr. Ellison, like all the old county settlers, lived in a log-house, and erected the stone building which is still standing, in 1735. William Bull, of Hamptonburgh, was the mason who built it, and time and the elements have proved the work well done. Maj. Morton, the present owner of this old mansion, has, since tenanting it, placed it in good condition, and, with a laudable pride, preserves the principal rooms in their original style of finishing. The ceilings are high and airy, the walls decorated with carved wood work. It is a story and a half, with dormer windows, and has the appearance of many an old cottage which you have seen in the English books. In the custody of such a keeper the structure ought to last another century. Its situation is pleasant and romantic, at a proper distance from the highway, in a beautiful part of the town. From the north comes a winding stream, which, being ponded below the road, is carried by an under-ground tunnel, to turn the ancient mill, in ceaseless motion for a hundred years, while the surplus waters of the stream hurry and beat themselves along their rocky and natural bed to hide in the over-hanging shrubs and trees below. Beyond the vale along the brook, stand the tenant-houses, neat and well-cared for, in the upper apartment of one of which Mr. Ellison maintained a church for a quarter of a century.
In the pond and along the stream, the water-fowl are seen sporting about and driving their graceful forms with sinewy paddles towards the shore or beneath the smooth surface of the pond. But why describe? for we think if content and happiness are to be found and enjoyed on earth, it is in a spot like this. We wonder that this locality, with all its natural beauty and artificial garnature, has not long ere this been subjected to the faithful eye of the artist.
Thomas Ellison, the ancestor and first emigrant, had seven children-Thomas, who lived in the city of New York and married Mary Peck; William, who married Mary Floyd of Long Island; John, who married Catharine Johnston of Kingston; Betsy, who married Cadwallader Colden of Coldenham and Nelly and Polly, who never married.
The land on the north side of Murderer's Creek was settled at an early period by Mr. John Nicoll, the father of John D. Nicoll, deceased, while the lands around the late residence of John Nicoll, the father of Leonard Nicoll and brother, were settled by Leonard D. Nicoll, their ancestor. There was another old settler by the name of Isaac Nicoll, a brother we suppose of John and Leonard. John Nicoll was a prominent man, and represented his county in the Colonial Legislature, and afterward's in the committee of safety-Col. Isaac Nicoll was also of that committee.
On the lands formerly of John D. Nicoll, now of Mr. Philip A. Verplanck, at Plum Point, and just north of his mansion, above the old battery, an individual by the name of McEvers, located and planted a log tenement, long anterior to the Revolution; not a vestige of which remains, except the excavation which formed the cellar, which marks the spot of his dwelling place. He was from country-Scotland, and when about to emigrate, asked his faithful servant, Mike, if he would accompany him to America. Mike, with the dutiful submission of one “on the manor born,” answered, that he was happy to do so, and if needs be, he would follow him to the gates of Hell. They left, and the vessel arriving at New York through the Sound, ran on the Hog's back at Hurlgate. Mike, with the other passengers, being really alarmed for their safety and perilous situation of the ship, ran on deck and enquired what place that was, and received for answer, “Hellgate.” In utter fright and astonishment, his eyes al most jumping from their sockets, Mike exclaimed, “true, I agreed to follow my master to the gates of Hell, but I did not promise to go through them.”