The situation is delightful, completely imbosomed in venerable trees, and far removed from the bustle of the highway. * The late occupant, in the exercise of his good taste and patriotism, preserved the old mansion from the invasion of modern improvements, and kept up that generous hospitality which marked the character of the "gentleman of the old school." Even the orifice in the side of the house, under the piazza, which was made by a cannon-ball fired from one of the British ships that conveyed the troops up the river, who burned Kingston, seventy-two years ago, is preserved with care, and shown to visitors as a token of the spite of the enemy against active Whigs. The last time I visited the mansion the late proprietor was living, possessing apparently all the vigor and cheerfulness of a man of fifty, though then past three score and ten years. ** In the room which contained his valuable library I passed several hours, copying the portraits of John and Mary Livingston, the parents of Robert Livingston, the first emigrant of that name to America; and also an interesting genealogical tree, illustrative of the family growth and connections, which Colonel Livingston kindly placed at my disposal. I have referred to these before, and they will be found in another part of this work.
I left Poughkeepsie at ten in the evening, and reached Kingston village, ninety-three miles north of New York, a little past midnight. The landing is upon a rocky island separated from the main land by a morass, crossed by a causeway. It is nearly three miles from the village, which lies upon an elevated plain several miles in extent, and is surrounded by high hills on all sides except toward the Hudson. On the northwest the Catskill range rises grand and beautiful, and far enough distant to present an azure hue. I think I never saw a more imposing display of distant mountain scenery than is presented at Kingston, toward sunset, when the higher peaks and bold projections cast their long shadows over the agricultural districts below, reflecting, at the same time, from their southwestern declivities, the mellow light of departing day.
Kingston was settled by the Dutch as early as 1663, as appears from an account of troubles between the white settlers and the Indians there, and was called Wiltwyck—literally Wild Witch, or Indian Witch. The Dutch built a redoubt upon the bank of the creek, near the ancient landing-place. The creek was called Redoubt Kill, or Creek, and is now known by the corrupted name of Rondout Creek. *** The Esopus Indians then occupied the beautiful
* Since my visit the quiet and beauty of the place have been invaded by the Hudson River Rail-road, which passes within a few feet of the mansion, and in whose construction the beautiful cove has been destroyed, and some of the venerable willows, planted by the first owner, have been uprooted. In our country the beautiful has but a feather's weight in the scale against the useful.
** Colonel Livingston died June 9th, 1849. Although living in the retirement of a gentleman of wealth and leisure, he often consented to serve the public in offices requiring judgment, industry, and integrity, he was a member of the state Senate one term; and it is a remarkable fact that he was never absent a day from his post in the Senate Chamber or in the hall of the Court of Errors. He will long be remembered in Poughkeepsie as one of its best citizens.
*** Benson's Memoirs, in the Collections of the New York Historical Society vol. i., part ii.. p. 119
Early Settlement at Kingston.—Indian Troubles.—The Huguenots.—Formation of the State Constitution.
flats extending from the creek northward nearly to the present town of Saugerties, and, becoming dissatisfied with their white neighbors, resolved to destroy them. For this purpose they fell upon the settlement while the men were abroad in the fields, and killed or carried off sixty-five persons. The survivors retreated to the redoubt, and the Indians began to erect a stockade near it. A message was sent to Nieu Amsterdam (New York), and Governor Stuyvesant immediately forwarded a body of troops, under Martin Crygier, who drove the Indians back to the mountains. During the summer, parties of the Dutch made inroads among the hill fastnesses, destroyed the Indian villages and forts, laid waste and burned their fields and stores of maize, killed many of their warriors, released twenty-two of the Dutch 1663-64 captives, and captured eleven of the enemy. This chastisement caused a truce in December, and a treaty of peace in May following.
The Dutch settlement at Kingston received a valuable accession, toward the close of the century, by the arrival of a company of Huguenots, * who, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, fled from persecution to America. They were a fragment of the resolute Christian band of eight hundred thousand who escaped from France into Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and England. They settled in the fertile valleys of Ulster and Orange, but that repose which they coveted was a long time denied them, for the Indians, jealous of the encroachments of the pale faces, harassed them continually. The school of suffering in which they had been tutored before leaving Europe had given them patience and perseverance, and they succeeded in planting the Gospel of Peace in the midst of the heathen, and gave many hardy sons to do battle in the council and the field for American independence.
Kingston and the neighboring region suffered much from the Indians and Tories during the Revolution, for this was emphatically a Whig district; and when Kingston became so presumptuous as to harbor rebel legislators, it was marked for severe chastisement by the enemy.