| "L. | S. | D. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| "For the poor | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| "For highways | 46 | 16 | 0" |
For the year 1906 there was raised by direct taxation in the town of Wallkill, which contains only about one-third of the acreage of the precinct of Wallkill, for the support of the poor, $1,000, and there was expended in the town for road purposes, exclusive of the care of State roads, and exclusive of the territory embraced in the City of Middletown, about $4,500. Presumably many of our taxpayers would prefer the olden days so far as taxes are concerned.
SOME EARLY HISTORY.
Very little is known of the aboriginal days of the town of Wallkill. While various tribes of Indians occupied different parts of Orange County, from the names of certain of the streams in the town of Wallkill, it is evident that they made their home, at least part of the time, in this town. However, outside of tradition and a few individual cases of contact with them, which had very little, if any, influence on the future history of the town, nothing reliable is known that would be of interest at the present time.
The earliest record of the patenting of lands, now included within the town of Wallkill, was some time before the year 1724, and seems to have been embraced in two patents, one known as the Minisink Angle, and the other a part of what is known as the John Evans patent. The latter tract was subsequently re-patented at dates commencing December 14, 1724, and ending May 13, 1761. The actual settlement of the town did not occur until about the close of the period mentioned, and therefore, Wallkill was not settled as early as a number of the other towns in the county.
It is only necessary to refer to the assessment roll of the town of Wallkill of to-day to find many property owners whose names are the same as those of their ancestors who subdued the wilderness and made Wallkill one of the most attractive and wealthy towns in the county. When we mention such names as Bull, Harlow, Borland, Wisner, Houston, Carpenter, Reeve, Mills, Green, Wickham, Connor, Mapes and Horton, taken from the assessment rolls of to-day, we could almost imagine we were reading a roll call of the names of the sturdy pioneers who subdued the wilderness and caused the valleys of this town to blossom as the rose.
Previous histories of this town and the numerous writings of other persons have made all these facts so familiar that it would seem idle to burden these pages with any repetition of the history of the early settlement of the town and its inhabitants.
From the time of settlement, during the entire Colonial period to the Revolutionary War, there was little of moment that happened here. The settlements gradually progressed in different directions, but, as before stated, not as rapidly as in some other towns. During the Revolutionary War, a number of its citizens were with the army at various times, but the town, by its location, was far removed from the din and strife of participation in any events of the struggle; no battles occurred within its limits, and it is not known that any organized bodies of the British or their allies ever set foot within its borders. From the close of the Revolutionary War until 1803, there was a steady growth in population, so that the assessment roll for that year contained 462 names of those who were assessed for either real or personal property, or both.
On March 29, 1799, the State Legislature passed an act for the gradual abolition of slavery, and a number of citizens recorded a formal act of freeing Negroes held by them. The first one of these seems to have been made in 1800, and is in the following form: