Page 3
History of Orange County
Roads and Turnpikes
Page 3
This road is still known by the name of the old Esopus road. It was probably marked out and partially worked by the mining company, who were afterwards assisted to complete and keep it up by the subsequent settlers.
Long subsequent to the period above stated, and perhaps as early as 1750 or 1760, the following roads seem to have been travelled and worked, and are found districted on the several town records, on the first organization of the towns as early as 1763.
One ran from Albany to New York, through Montgomery and Goshen, and from there down through the valley of the Ramapo into New Jersey. We pretend to state the general course, only, of those old roads. The valley of the Ramapo was the only avenue of intercourse between Orange and New York and the eastern portion of New Jersey, up to and during the war of the Revolution. The land transportation of all the munitions of war, at that period, passed through this Valley, as well as the property of individuals: and this circumstance, aided by the vicinity of the impassable and neighboring mountains, may have seduced and stimulated the young ambition of Claudius Smith in his lawless brigand course, knowing that his safety was insured in the dens and caves of the elevated fastnesses around him. This, we believe, was called the old New York road, now the State road. There was another that led from Albany to New York through this County and called the King’s road. It parted from the one previously mentioned in the town of Paltz, in Ulster Co., and taking a route along the river ran through Newburgh, New Windsor, Cornwall, and then united with the previous one in the Valley of the Ramapo. These were the only two principal roads which ran through the County from north to south, excepting the one from Goshen to Carpenters point, and one from Goshen to Florida and Warwick.
From the western part of the County to the North River there were the following:—One ran from the village of Montgomery in a pretty straight direction through Coldenham to Newburgh. The Turnpike is nearly on the track of this road. Another from near the Walkill, in the town of Montgomery, where old Capt. James McBride lived, through Neelytown and Little Britain to the Square, where it forked, one leading to New Windsor, which was the most ancient,—the other to Newburgh. This was called the old Little Britain road to New Windsor and Newburgh.
There was one leading from Goshen through Hamptonburgh, Blooming Grove, Cornwall and New Windsor to the villages of New Windsor and Newburgh. This road is still in very general use. It passes Heard’s, Washingtonville, Salisbury and Bethlehem. This, on the old town records, is called the Goshen road.
One leading from Goshen, passing the Walkill at the outlet of the Drowned Lands, ran through the town of Minisink to Carpenter’s Point on the Delaware, where there was a ferry across to Pennsylvania. The one from Goshen through Florida and Warwick and on to the Valley of the Ramapo, is also quite ancient.
These were the longest and most important of the early roads. There were others perhaps as old, but not so public in their use, one of which we mention. It led from the western part of the town of Montgomery north into Ulster County along the Shawangunk Kill, and called the Hokeberg road, commonly called Hokebarack. The name is descriptive of the road, which means the hill road. It is constructed on and runs along the top of a continuous range of hills or high lands till it runs them out in Ulster. The name is Dutch. This was the avenue of intercourse between the early Dutch settlers along the Shawangunk Kill, in Ulster, and the settlers in Orange.