The History of Orange County New York

by Unknown

Colonel De Kay informed them that the Governor alone had power to make such an appointment and that as there was not time to communicate with him, it would be best for the Indians to select a man. They chose the colonel and he was then chained to them for an hour or more as a token of their being united again in the bonds of friendship. Speeches were made by the Indians and they solemnly pledged themselves to be true "as long as the sun and moon endured," and promised to send in runners at once if they learned of any plots against the English. They also agreed to join in fighting the enemy and asked that aid be given them in case of attack by the French. This was freely promised and while the Colonel was still chained to the Indians they gave him the Belt of Wampum to be sent to the Governor. The Indians, according to the record, "again rejoiced with three huzzahs and departed very much pleased." The Belt of Wampum, so states the books of the Lords of Trade and Plantations in London, was taken to the Colonial Council in New York by Colonel DeKay a fortnight later and delivered to the Council, which in turn sent it to the Governor, who recommended that one be given in return to the Indians. This was the only occasion on record when the ceremony of the Covenant Chain was enacted in Orange County.

On April 18, 1748, an act was passed by the General Assembly providing that "for the time to come, all elections of representatives of the County of Orange to serve in the present or any future General Assembly shall begin and be first opened at the court house in Orange Town, or at the court house or some other convenient place in the town of Goshen."

About this time settlers who had dealings with the sheriff began to find considerable fault with the manner in which mileage charges were computed. On April 8, 1748, an act was passed providing that for all writs and process papers served on inhabitants on the north side of the mountain range called the Highlands, mileage should be computed by the sheriff from the court house in Goshen, and for all papers served on the south side from the court house in Orange Town. The preamble to this act fully explained the situation. It stated: "Whereas the County of Orange is very extensive in length, and by reason of a ridge of mountains across the same, and for the better accommodation of inhabitants, it was found necessary to have two court houses, the one at Goshen on the north, and the other at Orange Town on the south thereof; yet by the sheriff having his residence sometimes at the one and sometimes at the other extreme of the said county, the computation of his fees for mileage in the service of writs hath hitherto been made from the place of the sheriff's abode, which has been found to be very inconvenient and burdensome to the parties concerned."

Military Matters.

When the French and Indian War began in 1756 the men of Goshen were continually under arms. The old Journal of the Assembly relates the services of Captain George De Kay as express between Goshen and Minisink. It mentions as his guards Peter Carter, David Benjamin, Philip Reid and Francis Armstrong. It tells also of the payment of nearly 100 pounds to Colonel Vincent Mathews for furnishing guides to regulars posted at Goshen from October, 1757, to February, 1758, and refers to the work of Colonels Clinton and De Kay in laying out block houses for the settlers' defense. Mention is also made of the payment of 56 pounds to Samuel Gale for provisions furnished troops on the frontiers near Goshen; and of reimbursing Colonel Benj. Tusten, Captain Daniel Case and Captain J. Bull for money advanced in building block houses Nos. 1 and 2 on the western frontier in January, 1757.

In 1763, Lieutenant-Governor Cadwallader Colden appealed to the General Assembly for troops to relieve the militia on the borders of Orange and Ulster which were infested by the enemy. At this time the town of Goshen extended from the Hudson to New Jersey. In 1764 a bill was passed dividing the precinct of Goshen into two precincts, to be called Goshen and Cornwall. After this division Cornwall embraced the present towns of Cornwall, Monroe and Blooming Grove, while Goshen included the present town of Warwick.

During the years prior to the Revolution when the colonists were growing desperate under the exactions of King George, patriotism and valor were manifested to a marked degree in Goshen. On June 8, 1775, over 360 men signed the Revolutionary pledge at Goshen and the name of Henry Wisner headed the list. The Reverend Nathan Ker, an ardent patriot, and the fourth pastor of the Goshen Presbyterian Church, who came to Goshen in the fall of 1766, and remained until his death, December 14, 1804, on one occasion is said to have dismissed his congregation in the midst of a Sunday service to prepare food for a troop of horse that had halted on the way to Philadelphia. Once General George Washington, riding eastward on the Florida road towards his headquarters at Newburgh, stopped with his staff to chat awhile with the children at the old school house near the stone quarry.

NOTABLE EARLY RESIDENTS.

Many of the old families of Goshen to-day are descendants of the patriots who fought in the colonial service and whose names appear on the roster of the Goshen regiment at the battles of Long Island and White Plains, at the struggle in the Highlands, and the capture of Fort Montgomery, as well as in the memorable slaughter of Minisink.