The History of Orange County New York

by Unknown

The land known as the Glebe was part of a grant of 2190 acres on the west side of the Hudson River, "beginning on the north side of Quassaic Creek and extending up the Hudson 219 chains and into the woods 100 chains," made for the benefit of a colony of Lutheran, refugees from the Palatinate of the Rhine. They had crossed over to England and Queen Anne directed that this grant be made for them. From this tract 500 acres were set apart, "according to the queen's pleasure," for the support of their minister and 100 acres for the schoolmaster's lot. Although the Queens interest had been manifested in 1708, the patent was not issued until 1719, and then the land soon passed into other hands.

After the transfer of the Glebe lands in 1752 as mentioned above, a house was built for the schoolmaster, "with a school-room in the rear." Little is known of this school. Ruttenber, in his history of Orange County, gives the names of some of the teachers who were in charge of it at different times before the Revolution, as follows: Lewis Donveur, in 1768; Joseph Penney, in 1769; Thomas Gregory, in 1773. In 1774 John Nathan Hutchinson became the teacher and continued in the school until shortly before his death, which occurred in 1782.

There were other schools in various parts of the county, previous to the Revolution. One James Carpenter, a teacher at or near Goshen, is mentioned in certain records in 1762.

In the town of Deerpark, as it is now constituted, there were at least two school buildings which were erected before the war. One of these was located about a mile from the boundary of the city of Port Jervis. on the east side of the Neversink River, and the other where the village of Cuddebackville now stands. In this latter building Thomas Kyte taught for some time. In 1775 he married Lea Keator and removed from the valley to the town of Wantage, Sussex County, New Jersey, where he became a prosperous farmer and where some of his descendants still remain. In 1776 Thomas White, an Englishman, was employed as teacher in the same district. He came, with his wife Elizabeth, and lived at the home of Ezechiel Gumaer near the Neversink River. The school was also conducted in one of the rooms of the Gumaer house. Later, when the house was reconstructed as a fort, for the better protection of the people of the neighborhood, and several families had gathered there, the school was continued in the fort. Mr. White remained throughout the entire period of the war, and the children who were so fortunate as to be his pupils, enjoyed advantages which very few could have at that time. He was a man of some literary attainments, small in stature, but quick and active in body and mind.

Mr. Peter E. Gumaer (1770 to 1869) who was one of his pupils, says of him, in his history of Deerpark: "I conclude that Mr. White had been taught in one of the best of the common schools of England, and in a very perfect manner so far as he had progressed. He was a very eloquent reader and could perform the same with an air suitable to the nature of the subject on which the reading treated. I have always considered him as the equal of the best readers I have ever heard."

Commenting on the advantages which Mr. White gave his pupils and the value of his services to the community, Mr. Gumaer says, "This man's services have been a greater benefit to the third generation of the descendants of this neighborhood than those of any other individual, in consequence of which he ought to be held in remembrance by our descendants and be incorporated in our history, as the first important originator of education among us."

Mr. White spent his old age on a farm in the town of Wallkill and is buried in the churchyard of the Presbyterian church at Otisville. In his will he left a sum of money from the proceeds of which there should be paid $10 each year, to the minister of each of four different churches, for preaching a special sermon, to be known as The White Sermon. The four churches benefited are the Dutch Reformed church of Port Jervis, the Congregational church of Middletown, and the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches of Goshen.

The school on the east side of the Neversink River, near Port Jervis, was in session at the time of Brant's raid on Tuesday, July 20, 1779. The Indians and Tories under Thayandanega, or, as the whites called him, Joseph Brant, came down the Delaware valley and separated into two divisions. One party followed the river and the other crossed the point of land between the two rivers, keeping near the base of the mountain and crossed the Neversink near the old Indian burying ground. The object of the raid, as stated by Brant in his report to the commanding officer, was to secure booty, especially beef cattle. But it would appear from the method of attack that there was another object, that of capturing or killing Major Decker.

The attack was made simultaneously upon the home of Major Decker and upon the farms four miles down the river across the State line, in New Jersey. The men of the Major's family were away attending a funeral and the house, although it was surrounded by a stockade, was easily taken and burned. It is probable that the most of the men were attending the funeral when the attack was made. This funeral, or at least the burial, was held at the meeting house of the Dutch Reformed church, which stood on East Main street, near the culvert over which the Erie Railroad crossed that street. This also was burned later in the same raid. One of these bands came upon the school house with the school in session. The teacher, Jeremiah Van Auken, grandson of James Van Auken, who was the first magistrate of the Minisink region, was killed and scalped and the children scattered. According to the deposition of Mehary Owen, one of the Tories who accompanied Brant on this raid, that chieftain had issued strict orders that no women nor children should be injured. This deposition was taken by Henry Wisner, Esq., at Goshen, and, while there is little dependence to be put upon the word of such a renegade, there is no proof that any of the children were harmed.

The story so often told and sometimes discredited, that Brant himself came upon the party that had killed Van Auken, and put paint upon the clothing of the children to protect them, is too well authenticated to be rejected. It is more than tradition.