Little York.
The hamlet of Little York is about a mile east from Pine Island, in the town of Warwick. The first settler, Conrad Luft, came from Russia and settled there in 1886. About five years later Henry Lust, another Russian, came and located. Then followed in 1897 Peter Miller, Conrad Schmick, and August Youngmann. The next year eight more families came from Russia, buying land and building homes. Their industry is onion raising, for which the black meadow land which they cultivate is admirably adapted. They are Russians, but speak the German language and are Lutherans in religion. They are very industrious and thrifty, and nearly all have their homes and the land all paid for. In 1907 there were twenty-four houses, and one church, the Evangelical Lutheran, of which Rev. Gerhard Rademacher is the rector. There are about 200 in population, 100 communicant members of said church, and thirty-three voters.
A parochial school is maintained in connection with the church and has thirty-nine children in attendance. The church was built in 1898, finished in 1901, and incorporated in 1904. Rev. George Kaestner served the church until 1904. It was under his ministry that the church was begun and completed. He was followed by the present pastor, Rev. Gerhard Rademacher, during whose ministry the parsonage was built and the cemetery of three acres acquired.
Other Russians are expected the present year to come and settle here.
Amity.
Amity is the western portion of the town of Warwick, extending about three miles in radius from the Presbyterian church, the only house of worship in the village.
The church was organized by a committee of the Presbytery of Hudson on September 15, 1809, but the first building had been erected and dedicated thirteen years previous, August 1, 1796. The building stands on a lovely eminence 500 feet above sea level and commands a splendid view in every direction.
The two conical mountains, Adam and Eve, some four miles distant, stand to the northeast and are about 800 feet above the level of the sea. These granite mountains are rough and rocky, and are covered with impenetrable brush and bramble.
The chief occupation of the people is extensive farming. Peach growing, however, became a popular and profitable industry about 1885, and continued for twenty years, during which time all the principal farmers turned their best land into orchards, from which they shipped thousands of baskets of delicious fruit to New York City and other towns, where there was great demand and high prices.