"I do hereby certify that I have manumitted and set free my Negro slave, Otis, as fully and amply as I am authorized by the act of the Legislature entitled, 'An act for the gradual abolition of slavery,' passed the 29th day of March, 1799."
"Given under my hand and seal this 1st day of November, 1800."
"Tabetha Borland."
Similar acts of manumission were entered by Jonathan Smith, Stephen Smith, Henry G. Wisner, John Wilkin, William Phillips and Israel Wickham, and it is a fact that the descendants of these people, bearing in many cases the identical names, were the strongest opponents of slavery, and the most loyal supporters of the government during the Civil War.
As early as 1828, the temperance question began to agitate the people of the town of Wallkill, possibly more thoroughly than it is doing in the present day, for the reason that, in 1824, there were just three times as many taverns (as they were called in that day) within the limits of the town as there are hotels at present (1908). Many of the questions involved in the temperance agitation of that time are the chief object of argument at present, and we have only to quote a resolution passed at a meeting of the town of Wallkill, held in that year, to show this fact conclusively:
"Whereas, pauperism has increased in the town of Wallkill to an alarming extent; and whereas intemperance is one of the greatest progressing causes, inasmuch as more than three-fourths of the paupers emanate directly or indirectly from that source, and whereas tippling-houses, dram-shops, and groceries have a direct tendency to increase the evils; therefore,
"Resolved, (as the sense of this town meeting), That the board of excise be requested to refuse granting licenses to those persons whose principal object is to retail intoxicating liquors and not having suitable accommodations for public entertainment."
"Resolved, that the foregoing be entered on the records of said town and published in two newspapers printed in Goshen."
"Dated Wallkill, this 1st day of April, 1828."
The town of Wallkill continued to grow steadily, without any change in territorial boundaries, until 1848, when the village of Middletown was incorporated within its limits, but, outside of certain local matters, such as schools, streets, police, and a few other minor matters, the village continued to form a part of the town until the erection of the city of Middletown, in 1889. All the town officers were elected to represent the village and town in all things, excepting the purely local matters, applicable especially to the village.