Oct. 11, 1777 Dr. Peter Tappen of Poughkeepsie wrote to his brother-in-law, General George Clinton, to tell him of the excitement caused by the "intaligance that the Enemy had landed on both sides of the River and were marching up . . . ."

        All was "in Confusion Immediately," the Doctor wrote.  He had taken three loads of goods from Governor Clinton's house in Poughkeepsie "in a hurry," and sent them by sloop "up to Eusopus Kreek," for safekeeping.

        Then he had taken his sister, Mrs. Clinton, Mrs. Tappen and Mrs. Tappen's sister, Mrs. Gilbert Livingston, to the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Barnes in "Plisent Valy," "About Eight miles from Poughkeepsie,"  He promised his brother-in-law that "I mean to Defend the women here."

        Actually, the good doctor was a little over-excited.  The British did burn Kingston on that trip up the river, which makes one wonder about just what happened to the Clinton household goods which Dr. Tappen sent "up to Eusopus Kreek," but Poughkeepsie suffered little damage.

           His letter does establish the fact that Pleasant Valley was already named in 1777, although that area had been open for settlement less than 35 years, after the Great Nine Partners patent was divided among its owners in 1734.  Apparently the name Pleasant Valley was given by general consent, because the early settlers found it exactly that.

        Modern poor spellers find somewhat sour humor in another aspect of Dr. Tappen's letter.  He misspelled Pleasant Valley, intelligence, Esopus and creek, but of all the early spellings of Poughkeepsie, the one ultimately chosen was the one favored by this champion misspeller.

        The host of Dr. Tappen and the three women he took to Pleasant Valley for safety had a mill on Wappingers Creek, near the "great bridge" which crossed the creek as a part of Filkintown Road, the road between Poughkeepsie and Sharon, Conn.  It is believed that this road ran a short distance south, in Pleasant Valley hamlet area, of the Dutchess Turnpike which replaced it.

        When John Barnes advertised his property for sale in 1796 he said that the mill was three stories tall, 75 feet long and 30 wide, "calculated for the flouring business on a large scale."  The property also included "a good stone house," potash works, and "a large and commodious store for dry goods and groceries, at which place business has been done for many years."

        A little settlement was obviously growing up near the mill, as such settlements usually grew near mills.  Most of the residents of the settlement and the nearby farms were either Quakers or Presbyterians.

        Robert Abbatt owned the former Barnes mill in 1803 and built a cotton mill nearby.  After the cotton mill burned in 1815, a new stone one was built near the new Dutchess Turnpike bridge over the Wappingers.

        This stone mill has had a long and complex history.  During most of the last half of the 19th century and the first decade of this one print cotton was manufactured there by the Garner Co., then sent to Wappingers Falls for printing and finishing.

        There were several other mills nearby.  John Kenyon built a woolen mill about a mile east of the bridge over the Wappingers in 1808.  Various members of the Bower family made fine broadcloth there from 1837 until 1886.

        About halfway between the Kenyon-Bower mill and the bridge over the creek, Daniel Dean built a small mill where he printed calico.  It is said that Dean was a Quaker who wouldn't lie.  He told customers that the blue background of his calico was a fast color, but that the white print "might wash out." And it always did, for the white printing was made with paste.

        This mill was later converted to a grist mill.  After it burned in 1848, it was rebuilt and operated as a flour and feed mill by several owners.  George T. Bowman was there for the longest period, from 1861-1905

        Then there was the Ward mill, about a mile and one-half southeast of the bridge.  This was a grist mill, operated from the late 18th century until 1852 by four generations of the Ward family.  This mill was later owned by William Velie, William Smith and Isaac D. Masten until 1902.

        The Newcomb family also had both a grist mill and a saw mill on their property about a mile and one-half east of the bridge.  Still another saw mill was operated some 600 feet south of the bridge in the early days by Timothy Farrington, a prominent member of the Quaker meeting which was established in Pleasant Valley in 1802.

        So Pleasant Valley was a genuine mill town, and the Wappingers Creek, a tributary on the east and the bridge over the main creek were all important in its development.

        There are two stories about the destruction of the bridge which was built as part of the Dutchess Turnpike.  According to one of these, this bridge was torn out in a freshet of 1841, which ripped out all area bridges.

        But according to another durable story, the old one was removed and replaced in 1841 or '42 by the covered bridge which stood until March of 1911, when it was torn down.

        The old bridge was replaced in the 1840's, according to this story, because a peculiar accident pointed out the need for replacement.  A drover was crossing this bridge with a herd of sheep, so this story runs, when the lead sheep saw a hole in the bridge and jumped through.  All the other sheep followed, so he lost his herd.