GOVERNMENT BEGINNINGS.
The next April, 1763, Newburgh's first town meeting was held at the house of Jonathan Hasbrouck, now known as Washington's Headquarters, and these officers were chosen: Jonathan Hasbrouck, supervisor; Samuel Sands, clerk; Richard Harper, John Winfield and Samuel Wyatt, assessors; Daniel Gedney and Benjamin Woolsey, poor masters; Jonathan McCrary, John Wandel, Burras Holmes, Isaac Fowler, Muphrey Merritt and Thomas Woolsey, path masters; Nathan Purdy and Isaac Fowler, fence viewers and appraisers.
Ten years later Marlborough and Plattekill settlements were set off as New Marlborough, and left Newburgh with almost the same territory as that of the present town and city. The first supervisor of this reduced town was John Flewwelling and the first clerk was Samuel Sands.
The territory of the present town embraces 26,882 acres in the extreme northeast portion of the county. The soil along the river front for a distance of five miles is warm, productive and well cultivated. The rock formations are largely slate and lime. In 1875 its population was 3,538, and the census of 1905 places it at 4,885 persons.
Subsequent to the incorporation of the city of Newburgh, April 25, 1865, the town of Newburgh was invested with the government of its own officers. The following supervisors have been elected:
Nathaniel Barns, 1866; C. Gilbert Fowler, 1867; Nathaniel Barns, 1868 to 1870; W. A. Pressler, 1871; John W. Bushfield, 1872 to 1877; Henry P. Clauson, 1878 to 1880; W. A. Pressler, 1881 to 1885; Oliver Lozier, 1886; John W. Bushfield, 1887; Oliver Lozier, 1888 to 1801; William H. Post, 1892 to 1899; Henry P. Clauson, 1900 to 1906; Fred S. McDowell, 1907 and 1908.
EARLY PATRIOTISM.
But little need be added to what has elsewhere been sketched regarding Newburgh's part in the war for independence. Its people were prompt in patriotic response to the non-importation resolutions of the Continental Congress. It was one of the five precincts to publicly burn the pamphlet assailing those resolutions, entitled, "Free Thoughts on the Resolves of Congress," and on June 27, 1775, at a public meeting, appointed a Committee of Safety: Wolvert Acker, Jonathan Hasbrouck, Thomas Palmer, John Belknap, Joseph Coleman, Moses Higby, Samuel Sands, Stephen Case, Isaac Belknap, Benjamin Birdsall, John Robinson and others. When the pledge to support the acts of the Continental and Provincial Congress was ready 174 names were voluntarily signed to it and twenty-one of the fifty-four men who refused to sign afterward made affidavit that they also would abide by the measures of Congress and pay their quota of all expenses. Some of the thirty-three Tories who stood out were imprisoned and some were executed. The Newburgh patriots as promptly reorganized the militia of the precinct. They furnished two companies for a new regiment in September, and in December helped to constitute a regiment of minute men, and provided its colonel in the person of Thomas Palmer. They also, in 1776, organized as rangers or scouts to prevent attacks from hostile Indians. Throughout the war the citizens of Newburgh were conspicuous as volunteers in the regular army and as local militiamen in the cause of the Revolution, and were subjected to much inconvenience and many privations in consequence of the presence of other troops, as elsewhere stated. Many of them were killed and many more taken prisoners in the defense of the Highland forts, after which the poor taxes were increased from 50L to 800L and special donations were collected for those who had been deprived of their husbands or parents.
The history of Washington's doings and sayings in and near Newburgh is so familiar that they need not be repeated here.